IN WESTERN LIBERIA. 141 



Imagine now , that the crowns of trees are peopled with 

 whole troops of monkeys, belonging to the genera Colo- 

 bus, Cercopithecus , Cercocebus and Nycticebus^ with nu- 

 merous squirrels , with noisy hornbills , several species of 

 birds of pray , pigeons and doves , plantain-eaters , parrots , 

 woodpeckers and barbets, and whole flocks of the most 

 different kinds of smaller birds ; imagine the ground of 

 these forests inhabited by buffaloes and antelopes, a 

 family of Chimpanzees , an occasional old Elephant , a 

 small Hippopotamus {H. liberie?isis), a troop of wild hogs 

 {Sus penicillatus) , a Leopard or a Tiger-cat , lurking near a 

 well for an antelope; by Viverras, porcupines, bush-rats 

 {Cricetomys gambensis), beautifully spotted and striped 

 mice of different kinds, three species of Manidae, by 

 Guinea-fowls, Francolins and the curious Agelastes me- 

 leagrides , by poisonous snakes , and finally by myriads 

 of wild bees, termites, ants, whirring cicadas and the 

 like. Imagine these forests crossed by narrow foot- 

 paths along which a caravan of singing and shouting 

 carriers are removing the baggage of the white traveller 

 to another place, and now and then an open spot with 

 a little farm or a village with some dilapidated clay- and 

 bamboo-huts; imagine these forests traversed by a large 

 river full of rapids and rocky islands which , during the 

 rains, disappear under the surface of a thick yellow 

 stream — and on the bank , hidden by overshading trees at 

 the foot of a roaring waterfall , a simple hut of palm- 

 leaves, with one side entirely open. On the ground in the 

 middle of this hut a little fire , along the three walls cases , 

 boxes , guns and other hunting materials , nets , angling- 

 rods , a large case used as a table and some smaller ones 

 and an Elephant's skull as chairs; some hammocks hang- 

 ing from the roof, where the inhabitants of the hut take, 

 entirely dressed and armed, their short night's rest, and 

 before the hut , at the waterside , a solid raft of roughly 

 hewn tree-trunks, always ready to drift down the river in 

 time of danger and then you have got a tolerably clear 



Notes from th.e X^eyden. ]\Xuseuxii, "Vol. "VII. 



