Liberia ^ 



River discharges partly into the large lagoon known as Fisher- 

 man Lake and also directly into the sea, besides giving access 

 to a long creek which runs westwards parallel to the coast 

 and is known as Shuguri (Sugary) River. Into Fisherman 

 Lake also flow from the north the Morfi ^ and Japaka Rivers, 

 and a smaller stream called Yonni (Johnny) Creek. 



Fisherman Lake, sometimes known by the alternative Vai 

 name of Pisu (which simply means " lake "), is a large sheet 

 of slightly brackish water subject to the influence of the tides. 

 It is about ten miles long and five miles at its greatest breadth, 

 with depths of from thirteen and a half to ten feet. It communicates 

 with the sea by a narrow outlet, rather inclined to shoal water. 

 The entrance at once to the Mafa River and to the outlet 

 of the Fisherman Lake (the delta of the river and the outlets 

 of the lagoon being strewn with islands, big and little) is at 

 Barmouth, immediately to the north of a little rocky peninsula, 

 which is a promontory of Cape Mount. At low tide there 

 is only three feet of water on the bar ; otherwise there might 

 be the making of a useful harbour behind Cape Mount. 



Cape Mount is the most interesting and noteworthy feature 

 on the coast of Liberia, and the earliest known and recorded. 

 For the most part the West African coast, north of the Equator, 

 is low and singularly uninteresting in outline. This excessive 

 monotony and vagueness is broken by a few noteworthy features, 

 such as Cape Verde, which, though not very lofty, is still visible 

 at a considerable distance ; by Mount Kakulima and the other 

 highlands near Konakri, which attracted the notice of Hanno 

 the Carthaginian ; by Sierra Leone, with its mountains rising 

 to 3,000 feet ; and by Cape Mount in Liberian territory, the 

 highest point of which is 1,068 feet above the sea. Eastwards 



* Perhaps " Muevi " in Vai, or it may be the old trade name for Ivory (Morfil, 

 Marfim). 



434 



