326 ASHANGO-LAND. Chap. XVI. 



The Ouano was about 30 or 40 yards wide, and too 

 deep to be forded. 



We crossed this stream by a singular kind of 

 ferry. The boat or raft was formed of two logs of 

 light wood, fifteen feet long, and a flooring of laths, 

 tied by their ends to the logs, so as to form a rude 

 vessel four or five feet broad. The boat was pro- 

 pelled by the ferrymen across the current, and, to 

 prevent its being swept down stream, it was attached, 

 by means of a stout creeper looped at the end, to a 

 rope stretched between trees across the river. Up- 

 right sticks were fixed in the side-beams of the raft 

 for the standing passengers to hold on by. Our 

 party were transported across the stream by means 

 of this contrivance in five journeys. In the rainy 

 season, when the current is very strong, this ferry 

 must be very useful. I had never before seen a 

 ferry of this kind in Africa. 



About one p.m. we crossed a high hill called Mog- 

 iama, the summit of which was 2264 feet above the 

 sea-level. Soon after, we passed a small Ashango 

 plantation, with a few huts on its borders and 

 patches of the wild tobacco-plant and of the hemp. 

 The tenants of the huts had fled at our approach, 

 and we cooked our dinner at the forsaken fires of the 

 settlement. My Ashango porters insisted upon kill- 

 ing their goat here. When I asked them why they 

 had not killed and eaten it at Niembouai, they 

 replied that they were afraid their own people would 

 have asked them for some of the meat. I then 

 asked them why they did not wait initil we had 

 reached the village to which we were going. Their 



