VOYAGE TO THE NIGER. 63 
confluence of the Niger and Chadda. The current runs two 
and a half knots. i 
Saturday, September 11.—Before eight o’clock we cast 
anchor off Adda-Kuddu, the place which had been prelimi- 
narily fixed upon for the model-farm. The river expands 
here to a lake; while, to the extreme left, the confluence with 
the Chadda is seen. Mountains above 2000 feet high are 
visible in every direction at a distance. The landing-place 
was remarkable for the many boulders, lying one over the 
other, surrounded and partly overgrown with shrubs and 
trees. In one conspicuous place I found a Baobab, looking 
much like an old Oak. Close by, were several others, one 
quite denuded, the rest with a little foliage, but all showing 
their characteristic pendent fruit. Being still poorly, I took 
Captain Trotter’s advice and went on shore. The ruins 
of Adda-Kuddu surrounded the place, and were already 
covered with vegetation. 
Cylindrical holes, several feet deep, and 2 feet in diameter, 
and bricked for making dyes, were still visible. The ruins 
of African towns offer nothing picturesque. We hurried to 
some spot; from whence we might survey the country. 
About the town, the habitations of which had been round 
clay huts, lies a level valley bounded by low hillocks, which 
promised the territory best fit for cultivation. To get at it, we 
had to pass a place, where seemed to have been something like ~ 
aditch and wall. The valley itself had evidently been culti- 
vated at one time, but is now covered with Gramineae, 
Cyperacee, a few small Euphorbie, Malvacee, and particularly 
Leguminose ; amongst which two Tephrosia, one 5 or 6 feet 
high, were the most remarkable plants, rendering our pro- 
gress very difficult by their woody stalks. The valley was 
nearly dry, with only a few puddles’ of rain water; and the 
ground is pretty well cleared, with here and there a few 
large pieces of broken rock. The soil consisted of decom- 
Posed granite, and if it ever had been mixed with vegetable 
earth, it is exhausted by former cultivation. Quarta remained 
abundantly in it, in the shape of coarse sand, and I could 
