Essequibo

Essequibo, the most westerly of the great rivers of British Guiana, rises in the Acaiai Mountains, 46 miles N. of the equator, and after a course of 620 miles enters the Atlantic, forming an estuary 15 miles wide, in which lie numerous fertile islands. The entrance to the river is rendered difficult owing to the sand and mud collected at its mouth; its course, which is through magnificent forest scenery, is much broken by cataracts, and it is navigable for 35 miles only. It receives a number of large tributaries, as the Rupununi, and the united Cuyuni and Mazaruni; on the Potaro, another affluent, is the grand Kaieteur Fall, 741 feet in sheer descent, discovered in 1870. The county of Essequibo, lying to the west of the river, has a coast-line of about 120 miles, nearly to the Orinoco. For disputed frontiers, see VENEZUELA.