Page:A pilgrimage to my motherland.djvu/33

the journey takes from ten to fifteen days. In the former case it is necessary to proceed very slowly and cautiously along the margin of the water, where frequent obstructions are encountered, and in the latter, the water being in many places only a few inches deep, the canoes must often be unloaded and sometimes carried over places where they could not possibly float. At any time, however, except in the height of the rainy season when the roads are much flooded, the journey can be performed by land in two or three days. The water is of a whitish tinge, from holding in suspension argilaceous matter and minute fragments of the constituents of granite, particularly feldspar. There is abundance of fish, to catch which the natives attach snares to strong ropes made from the stems of a species of creeping palm, (Calamus,) passed across the river and fastened on both sides to trees. These ropes offer some impediments to navigation, frequently upsetting canoes, and causing the loss of their freight. The current, to within ten or fifteen miles of Lagos, is very strong, due doubtless to the regular but very marked elevation of the interior country. There is generally an annual overflow of its banks. Although far more water falls in the former rainy season in May, June and July, than during the latter in September, October and November, yet the river never overflows till in the