E. ree branch.—CH. D. Trotter). 
VOYAGE TO THE NIGER. 87 
swampy, it proved firm to the waters edge, andj I am 
inclined to believe that spots, looking marshy at a distance, 
are not really so. Perhaps some swamps may be formed 
in dry weather by the receding of the waters; but since 
our quitting the Mangrove country, I have not observed 
any absolute morasses; on the contrary, the land appears 
every where to rise 2 or 3 feet above the water, though | 
what are now creeks may become swamps in the dry 
season. We descended the Benin (Warree)* branch for a few 
miles ; it nowise differs from the main river, except that the 
stream is somewhat narrower. By four o’clock we returned 
to the point of junction, and during our short stay, a great 
many canoes assembled about us. Some were large and 
carried twelve or sixteen persons, others fewer, and some 
had only one in them. The canoes are the same as before, 
with a high and broad stern. One man stood steering with a 
paddle. There were perhaps sixteen canoes, containing 
about one hundred and ten people, who had come mostly 
from Obiah, on the right shore of the river. Their dress had 
nothing very peculiar. The main difference consisted in the 
various coral and pearl strings, or ivory and brass rings, 
which they wore on arms and legs, and in the manner of 
dressing the hair. The latter struck us particularly, now 
that so many individuals had collected, and we could look 
down on their heads, from the deck of our ship. — Some had 
cut their hair so round and formally, that it bore the most 
deceptive semblance to a wig; some shaved their heads 
quite bald; while others only kept a portion of hair behind, 
or a large portion forming a narrow ridge across, or it was - 
allowed to grow high in the middle of the head, like a small - 
steeple. Some whimsical fellows exhibited merely a narrow - : 
er " hair fron behind to the tront, wee like the crest ae z 
* Tage E qe ha ae 
-It leads to Warree or Mun uni Gane therefore to be called £ the War- T 
