-^ Geography of" Liberia 



.§wimp used as a place for washing clothes. This, in its present 

 state, is unwholesome ; but the springs that feed the swamp 

 might well be diverted into a useful basin of fresh water, with an 

 overflow to the sea. 



Perhaps what makes the locality so melancholy and gives 

 such a gloomy touch to Monrovia in general is the rampant, 

 choking, monotonously green vegetation, which for ever 



174. A STREET IN MONROVIA 



threatens to smother the small settlement. No one is so 

 near a tree-worshipper as I am, or so keen a botanist from the 

 aesthetic point of view; but I must confess Liberia,is a country 

 to disgust one with vegetation and even with forest. It is 

 as though mankind in this part of Africa was fighting a well- 

 nigh desperate battle against the hostihty of the vegetable 

 world. In the far interior man has won a victory which has 

 been almost too extreme. He has absolutely killed out the 

 VOL. I 449 29 



