402* THE FOREST AND THE FIELD. 



or marsh, but plains clothed with rank but luxu- 

 riant vegetation. 



Besides all kinds of forest-trees, there were 

 groves of fan-palms and cocoa-nuts, clumps of the 

 stately bombax or cotton-tree, several species of 

 tree-ferns, cola-nut trees — which at a short distance 

 resemble walnuts — wild bananas, and cardamums, 

 then in full bloom. Some of the forest-trees were 

 of gigantic size, having their trunks, which often 

 rose straight for a hundred feet without throwing 

 out a branch, entwined with festoons of beautiful 

 parasitical plants, amongst which the india-rubber 

 vine was not at all uncommon. 



As soon as the intense heat of the day was over 

 we continued our route, only stopping now and 

 then for a few minutes to examine places that 

 looked likely for game to come and drink at the 

 river, but the only signs we saw were a few slots 

 of bush-deer, here called by the natives " N'cheri, " 

 which somewhat resemble the '^Jila tomha,'' found 

 near Sierra Leone and Accra. 



En route we passed several Fan villages, the 

 inhabitants of which called out for us to land and 



