Geographical Sketch. Two mountain systems are of importance in the present case. The one is the main range of the Imataka, which runs fairly parallel to the coast, from north-west to south-east. It starts 5 from the Orinoco, where that river is joined by the Caroni, and, as a well-marked range, extends to the neighbourhood of the Acarabisi Creek. To the east of this it gives place to a scattered group of hills of low elevation, including 10 the so-called "Blue Mountains," which extends nearly to the point of junction of the Massaruni and Essequibo and down the latter river. The range thus continued separates the two districts called in the Venezuelan Case Case "the coast 15 regions," which lie on its seaward face, between the Orinoco and the lower course of the Essequibo, from the two "interior regions," which lie to the south. The height and consequent importance of the Imataka Range have been 20 much exaggerated, at any rate as regards the part touched by the Schomburgk line. It is only to the westward of that line that there are any mountains worthy of the name, though even there they do not rise to more than between 2,000 and 25 3,000 feet. At the Schomburgk line, and to the east of it, there are merely more or less detached hills, at most not more than 600 feet high. Writing of the range at the point where the Aunama and the Acarabisi rise, the one to join 30 the Waini, the other the Cuyuni system, Schomburgk says "I estimated the highest ridge which separates the two systems at 520 feet above the level of the sea. Heights which really deserve the name of mountains. 35 commence 20 miles further westward." And Barrington Brown writes of the same part : "Between the Cuyuni and Barama Rivers comes the Imataka Range, which terminates near the sources of 40 the Waini River, and is of no considerable extent or height in this part." Case, App., The other mountain system, in some parts of British Countermuch greater altitude, is a much less easily defined group of ranges, covering the country west of 45 the Essequibo, and extending as far to the south as the head-waters of the Trombetas, a large tributary of the Amazon. At its northern ex pp. 405, 408. tremity the group is considerably expanded from It is these insignificant hills which are magnified by the Venezuelan Case into the so-called Ayangcanna Range. The statement in the Venezuelan Case, that 15 "on the east a spur of this same rugged range, under the name of the Ayangcanna Mountains (at places nearly 5,000 feet high), runs north until it meets the Blue Mountains, which, as a spur of the Imataka, run south," is destitute 20 of all foundation in fact. There is a mountain named "Mount Ayangcanna," in longitude 60° 10′ and latitude 5° 20', of about 5,000 feet high, but there is no such range as the so-called Ayangcanna Mountains. 25 Moreover, there is a wide interval between the low and ill-defined hills to the south of the Massaruni and the hills of the "Blue Mountains" to the north of the Cuyuni, and the statement in the Venezuelan Case that "near the point 30 of junction of the Cuyuni and Massaruni there is a break in these mountains, and through this break, over rapids and falls, the Cuyuni and Massaruni Rivers pour their united waters into the Essequibo," is entirely misleading. No such 35 gorge exists. From the northern slopes of the Imataka and the "Blue Mountains " the Rivers Amakuru and Barima, the Waini with its tributary the Barama, and the Pomeroon flow directly into the sea. 40 Westward of the region which is watered by the rivers just mentioned, a spur, called on the maps the Piakoa Mountains, runs up from the Imataka Range in a north-easterly direction. A more easterly spur, which may for convenience 45 be called the Amakuru Range, runs up to the source of the Amakuru River, and along its right bank past the point where it is joined by the Yarakita Creek from the east. This spur constitutes the watershed between the upper courses of the Amakuru and Barima Rivers. The watersheds respectively between the Barima, the Waini, the Moruka, the Pomeroon, 5 the Supenaam, and the Lower Essequibo are low and ill-defined. Immediately south of the Imataka Range, more or less parallel to that range and to each other, flowing mainly from west to east, are the 10 Cuyuni and the Massaruni, separated by a watershed of irregularly scattered mountains. The Essequibo, on the other hand, flows mainly from south to north, and almost at right angles to the united stream of the Cuyuni and Massaruni. The so-called "Orinoco Delta Region," according to the Venezuelan Case, extends eastward as far as the watershed dividing the Waini from 20 the Moruka, thus including the basins of the Amakuru, Barima, and Waini Rivers. The Venezuelan arguments are: (1) that "into the Orinoco, at and above Barima Point, flow various streams, the Barima, Amacura,” and 25 others; (2) that there exists a "set of conditions which converts the Lower Barima and the Mora Passage into a veritable Orinoco mouth;" and (3) that "also intimately connected with the Lower Orinoco . . . . . is the Waini, a river which 30 empties into the ocean, in part through its own mouth, but in part also through the same Mora Passage and the Barima River." so that "the Waini, with the region through which it flows, constitutes a part of the great Orinoco 35 Delta." The British reply is: (1) that the Amakuru and Barima are not tributaries of the Orinoco, but are, in fact, independent rivers; (2) that the conception of the Lower Barima and the 40 Mora Passage as a mouth of the Orinoco is entirely at variance with the facts, and is founded only on erroneous mapping; and (3) that the inclusion of the Waini in the system of the Orinoco is in contradiction to physical facts. Trend of Rivers. Each of the Rivers Pomeroon, Waini, Barima, and Amakuru runs for a certain distance in a direction at right angles to the line of the coast, 10 but, before reaching the sea, turns very decidedly in a north-westerly direction and runs for a considerable distance parallel to the coast before entering the Atlantic. The cause of this peculiarity is that the great equatorial current from 15 the African coast, streaming across towards South America, meets the stream from the Amazon and, helped by the trade-wind, drives it up in a north-west direction along the coast of South America, carrying with it the sand 20 and detritus from the rivers which it passes in its course. The deposit of this sand and detritus has built up between the Essequibo and the Orinoco an alluvial tract outside the original coast-line, which was situate where 25 these rivers first turn somewhat west from north. Thus the true course of the rivers above mentioned is at right angles to the coast, but their lower course has been blocked and gradually turned more and more north and west, till, in the 30 case of the Barima and the Amakuru, they might be supposed by a person unacquainted with the physical history of this coast, to run into the estuary of the Orinoco. 10 British Counter- the one creek to that of the other, and so make for themselves a short cut, which becomes more and more used. The passage of each boat renders that of the next more easy, in that it deepens and 5 widens the channel. The water naturally flows more and more through the opening channel, and, in its course, eats away the exposed banks of soft mud. Thus the itabo is formed, it may be said, artificially, and yet without definite purpose. Of course such a waterway is at first small and at certain seasons almost or quite impassable; and if not much used it may continue so for an indefinite period. Of this character are the itabos connecting the Barima with the Waini below 15 Mount Everard, and that connecting the Anabisi with the Kaituma. Sometimes, if use of them is abandoned, they may practically disappear, as, for example, that marked in Schomburgk's Physical Map between the Barima and the 20 Waini at the place called Eckanabua above P. 47. Morawhana. On the other hand, where much in use they may enormously increase in width and depth, as has been the case in the last fifty years, and more especially within the last ten years, with the Morawhana. 25 It should be explained that in the country under consideration the itabos have originated by the junction, in the manner above described, of two or more flowing streams, each of which 30 has an independent source of its own, and its British Atlas, British Counter- own course. This is still quite obvious in the case of such connecting water-channels as that between the Moruka and the Waini, and that between the Waini and the Barima below 35 Mount Everard. The only channel in which it is no longer obvious is the Morawhana; but there can be little doubt that the Morawhana originally consisted of two flowing streams, both rising in the swamps between the Barima and 40 the Waini, the one draining this swamp into the Barima and the other into the Waini. The suggestion made in the Venezuelan Case Venezuelan Case, that the alluvial country is characterized by "interlacing bayous" as distinguished from 45 "true flowing streams," is based on a misconception of the nature of the itabos. The Morawhana, which is simply the largest of the itabos, has been very incorrectly represented in the Venezuelan Case, and more especially in the maps accompanying that document. The p. 26. Venezuelan Atlas, The Morawhana. |