IN WESTERN LIBEKIA. 131 



Liberian Government. Its south-eastern frontier is formed 

 by the San Pedro River , which separates it from the Ivory 

 Coast while, in the North West, the Manna River sepa- 

 rates it from the British Colony of Sierra Leone. 



The tolerably straight coast-line consists chiefly of a 

 sandy ridge without any pronounced formation of dunes. 

 This ridge , sloping but slightly downwards on its inner 

 side, is interrupted by numerous rivers and some high 

 promontories, projecting in a more or less western direc- 

 tion into the sea and forming behind their northern slope 

 a kind of bay, which offers a safe anchorage. 



The most important promontories are : Grand Cape Mount , 

 1090' above the level of the sea, Cape Messurado with 

 Monrovia, the Capital of Liberia, 240', and Cape Palmas, 

 the most southern point of Liberia , of about the same 

 height. 



Immediately behind the above mentioned ridge begins 

 the swamp region , stretching from three to ten miles into 

 the interior and varied now and then by somewhat ele- 

 vated grassy plains. The swamp region is intersected not 

 only by the rivers, but by a whole net of creeks, enlar- 

 ging now and then to more or less considerable pools. At 

 flood-tide a great part of these swamps is covered with 

 water, to which fact is to be attributed the existence of 

 the vast Mangrove-forests which form here nearly the only 

 vegetation. 



Farther towards the interior the country rises gradually. 

 The Mangrove-swamps are left behind and give place to a 

 fertile soil , consisting of ferruginous clay , perfectly fit for 

 agriculture , especially for coffee-farming. This region, which 

 becomes more hilly towards the interior , is tolerably thickly 

 populated by natives and Liberians (black settlers from Ame- 

 rica) , which latter have founded their sugar- and coffee- 

 farms by preference on the banks of the most important 

 rivers as far up as they are navigable. 



There is, however, a great part of this region still co- 

 vered with forest and abandoned Negro plantations , as the 



Notes from tlie Ueyden IMLuseum, Vol. VII. 



