292 PROFESSOR SMITH’S JOURNAL. 
The breze sets in to day somewhat early, or about eleven 
o’clock, but, as usual, is scanty. It generally begins first 
to blow fresh after it is dark, when we are obliged of course 
to remain at anchor, We proceeded at a slow rate along 
the coast. Our black pilot steered between the two islands 
to the northward (where the boats touched the very bottom) 
and into the great channel along Monkey Island. The 
picturesque and varied scenes occasioned by the thickets 
and forests have now disappeared. We have now passed 
the mangrove country, and see only thickets of Hibiscus 
near the water, with some solitary trees. ‘l'o the right the 
low land is thickly overgrown with high grass like 2 corn- 
field. No forests are now visible, unless that name should 
be given to vast ranges of the Cyperus papyrus, which with 
their lofty and waving tops present a singular appearance. 
Farther up some scattered Hyphene palins are still visible. 
The appearance which these two plants give to the whole 
country strongly reminds me of the drawings of Egyptian 
landscapes. The palms as we proceed increase in number, 
forming groups, aud higher up even whole forests. Great 
numbers of the natives make their appearance on the shore, 
walking about in the grass between the thickets. We are 
just by the village of Maliba, whose name is derived from 
its palms. When it grew dark we anchored a little higher 
up, a few fathoms from the shore. <A black cloud for the 
first time made its appearance in the northern horizon. 
The-negroes told us that it was the prognostic of the ap- 
proaching rainy season. While I am writing this at our 
anchorage I hear the evening music of the grasshoppers. 
