michael donner wrote:

>
> the greatest fun comes in trying to discern at every fork which branch is
> the most major one
> & in tracing the last trickle to its usually potable fountainhead
> & i can tell you there are many named rivers like the mississippi which
> themselves lose track of their own main stem

I know. Great Britain and the Netherlands were at it, and now Guyana and Surinam (Although 'fun' is
not the operative word here). The Corantyne should be the boundary river way up to the source. But
then some explorer found a new river (subsequently named New River), a tributary, but one which
could also considered to be the upper part of the Corantyne, the Dutch argued. In that case Surinam
would be a lot bigger. The area is known as the New River Triangle, and together with the dispute
about where in the Corantyne the international boundary is situated (middle of the stream or on the
left bank, and consequently the boundary between the terr. waters and the EEZ's) is a major source
of trouble between the two countries.

http://www.guyanaca.com/suriname/guysuri_boundary.html for the Guyanan view of things;

http://www.suriname.nu/hellen/westgrens.htm for the Surinam view (in Dutch only, unfortunately)
Here it says that in 1936 a tripoint monument was established (brgbnl) at the spot the English
advocated. The Dutch probably agreed, but the Surinamese certainly don't agree now.

Peter S.