1. BRITISH GUIANA is situated approxi mately between lat. 1° and 8° 40' N. It is bonded on the north and northeast by the Atlantic Ocean, on the east by Dutch Guiana, on the south by Brazil, and on the west by Brazil and Venezuela. Its area is 89,480 square miles. The old settlements of Essequibo, Ber bice and Demerara form counties with the same names. Of these; Demerara contains the capital of the colony (see GEORGETOWN) ; Esse quibo, the town of Bartica, the point of de parture for miners going to the goldfields; and the capital of Berbice County is New Am sterdam. One of the chief points on the new boundary line with Venezuela, Mount Roraima, is an immense sandstone mass rising with per pendicular sides 2,000 feet above the slopes (themselves 6,000 feet above sea-level) which form its base. Some of the neighboring moun tains resemble it in form, but are less imposing. Midway between this group and the Atlantic coast is the Imataca range, extending east southeast to the confluence of the Cuyuni and Essequibo. The latter with its tributaries drains nearly the whole interior of the colony; the Demerara, though much smaller, is more important, because it flows through the region which has become the centre of population; the Corentyne is the boundary between British and Dutch Guiana.
Geology and Mineral The original sea beach is found far inland, where it now appears as long stretches of white sand reefs, the sand being derived from a barrier of primary, volcanic and metamorphic rocks, which impedes the navigation of the rivers. The strip between this barrier and the ocean front—composed of layers of soft mud, clay, sand, broken shells and decomposed vegetable matter —is really an enormous mud-flat, about 100 feet in depth, and covered with a rich, heavy loam, and in places, with a kind of peat called pegass. The whole interior of the country, be tween the agricultural coast-strip and the range culminating in Roraima, is an auriferous region. The gold is commonly found in combination with silver. Quartz-mines have been worked in upper Demerara, but placer-mines in the beds of former streams or the channels of existing ones are more usual. Other mineral products are iron, sapphires, diamonds, mercury, gar antimony and plumbago. A sandstone for =non characterizes the southwest, from Mount Roraima to the Potaro and Essequibo rivers, thence extending eastward across the Demerara, Berbice and Corentyne. The sand stone is interbedded with volcanic rocks. In
many parts of the colony there are red, yellow and blue clays; and fine white clay, suitable for the manufacture of porcelain, is also found.
Soil and The surface of the coast alluvium is so fertile that alternation of crops is not required; it is, however, very heavy and hard to cultivate. The thermometer ranges generally from 76° to 86° F., with little differ ence in this respect between day and night. The rainfall, in some years 130 inches, in others is not more than 70 inches. The year is divided into two rainy seasons (November-February and May-July), and two dry seasons. Neither destructive earthquakes nor hurricanes occur. There has been only one serious outbreak of yellow fever during 50 years. Death rate of the colony about 35 per 1,000.
Flora and Characteristic forest products are exceedingly hard and heavy woods. The greenheart, mora and wallaba are valuable for building; the simaruba, letter-wood and crabwood, for making furniture, etc. Vegeta tion in Guiana is remarkable on account of the altitude of the trees and the great size of leaves and flowers. The gigantic water-lily, Victoria Regia, is very common. Some of the orchids form large masses, with flower-stems 12 feet high. Common mammals are sloths, deer, ant eaters, tapirs, armadillos, peccaries, jaguars, cavies and ring-tail monkeys. Monkeys belong to two families which are entirely confined to this region, and bats develop here their most extraordinary specializations. In some parts of the forest vampires are "ready to suck the foot or even the cheek of the unwary traveler?' The manatee (vulgo "mermaidp or "water mamma"), inhabiting some of the large rivers, and coming to the surface at intervals to breathe or to graze on the plants which line the banks, owes its popular designations to the circum stance that it suckles its young at the breast. The representative families of birds are, with few exceptions, peculiar to this region, the list of such birds including greenlets, tanagers, hang-nests, sugarbirds, tree-creepers, manakins and cotingas. Alligators and boa constrictors both attain to great size in this region; iguanas and smaller kinds of lizards are numerous. Among the insects, the variety of genera and species can, it is thought, scarcely be equaled any other part of the world. Uncommon brilliance of coloring is characteristic of both the birds and the insects.