80 JOURNAL OF THE 
because I had no boat to get to the opposite side, where the 
greater extent of land and a village seemed to offer more — 
interest. The river is here perhaps 10,000 yards wide, and 
the stream carries down a great deal of sand. The tide 
showed itself very distinctly, running perhaps three or four 
knots an hour, and the current seeming to set more on 
the left shore, which appears to be a mere sandbank, or 
sandy foreland, than on the right, which is covered with 
jungle, immediately beyond the sandy strand. The mouth 
of the Nun looks like a Delta, on a small scale; at least now, 
during the rainy season; being intersected by many shallow 
watercourses, forming, further on, low lands covered with 
Mangroves, similar to what I observed at Bassa Cove (Grand 
Bassa). The Avicennia appeared to prove, that the one 
hitherto seen, with quite naked leaves (A. nitida ?) at Grand 
Bassa, is but a variety of that at Sierra Leone. In these 
Mangrove swamps, the Oil palm often grew, covered with 
parasitical Ferns, (I found only two species of Ferns besides 
those, which are terrestrial), and on somewhat higher ground, 
Drepanocarpus lunatus, Ormoearpus verrucosus, afew shrubby 
Rubiacee, and a few Mimoseæ, Of the trees, intermixed with 
the Mangroves, little can be said; they were not many, and 
all covered, to the very top, with parasites. Some belonged to 
the genus Bombaz. This land, if it can be so called, was but a 
few feet above high-water mark, and consisted of sea-sand and 
vegetable remains. The beach was quite flat, hardly higher — — 
than the sea, covered in many places with water, and formed 
of sand, mixed with mica, probably carried down by the 
Niger, and giving its shores ashining and peculiar appearance. - 
In some places, the strand is elothed with jungle close to the — — 
sea, consisting of Chrysebalanus Icaco and Ecastophyllum 
a Brownei ; the fruits of the former, of a beautiful red, ware sti 3 
co us. Intermingled with these grew Mek : 
Diodia maritima, Th., some other small Rubiacee, and due 
paria dulcis; while the border, towards the higher woods, 
| was tu e ornuspented with the Ro yellow flowers of = : 
