June 11, I860.] GEOGRAPHICAL OBSERVATIONS ON WESTERN AFRICA. 219 



to Illorin, a great Mahommedan city, populated by Houssas, Fu- 

 lines (the Fullotalis of Denham and Clapperton), and Yoruba ; the 

 Fulines being the ruling people, though the Houssas are most 

 numerous. The three languages are spoken in the Court, messages 

 being made to the officer in Yoruba, conveyed to the King in 

 Fulines, and answered by him in Iloussa, the reply being returned 

 in Yoruba. The route, on returning, was through Oyo, Iwo, and 

 Iboddan, many towns and villages intervening between the large 

 cities named through which they passed. 



Granite, quartz, and limestone form the principal strata of these 

 plateaus, and iron abounds in every region, each town of any note 

 having iron-smelting establishments. The Grand Paul Mountains 

 — the southern extremity of the great mountains of Kong — in the 

 Webo, Kabo, and Dibo countries, forming the northern limits of 

 Liberia, are composed of masses of quartz, as far as the eye can 

 scan, towering from peak to peak like great white heaps of snow- 

 capped summits. These quartz strata extend into Liberia, within 

 ten miles of Abourovia, on the St. Paul. Iron about Monrovia 

 is abundant, the town seeming to rest on a solid mass of iron- 

 ore ; some parts of Ashman-street show traces of the mineral. 

 Mica also abounds. 



The climate is good and frequently salubrious, the thermometer 

 ranging from 70° to 90° Fahr. During the Harmattans — a dry, cold 

 north-easterly wind of from two to four weeks' duration (and not a 

 " dry, hot wind," as mistakingly called by some writers) in De- 

 cember and January — the mercury falls as low as 54° Fahr., when it 

 in consequence is very cold, but seldom reaches 90° ; the average 

 temperature being 85° Fahr. 



The diseases are simple and easily treated when properly un- 

 derstood by intelligent medical men. Intermittent fever, with 

 various modifications of bilious, remittent, continued, and inflam- 

 matory, comprise the principal medical — and ophthalmia, from taint, 

 and hernia those of surgical — diseases. Inflammatory is the worst 

 type of fever known to these places : it doubtless being that which 

 recently prevailed with such sad mortality in Freetown, Sierra 

 Leone. 



The soil throughout varies from a rich alluvial to a sandy loam, 

 with ample capacity for every tropical production. 



The woods are numerous, and, although as yet not scientifically 

 nor well classified, from practical use enough is known of them to 

 decide their quality for domestic purposes in building and furniture 

 architecture. This has been fully tested in the Webo, Kabo, and 

 Dibo countries, where they make a handsome native chair of a 



