116 ' CAPTAIN TUCKEY'S NARRATIVE. 



multiplied as they can be procured by the relations of the 

 deceased, or according to the rank of the person ; in the 

 case of a rich and very great man, the bulk acquired being- 

 only limited by the power of conveyance to the grave ; so 

 that the first hut in which the body is deposited, becoming 

 too small, a second, a third, even to a sixth, encreasing in 

 dimensions, is placed over it. 



August 3d. This morning at daylight, I rowed the sloop 

 round Booka Embomma island to the south entrance of the 

 creek, where I anchoretl to wait for the Congo coming up 

 with the sea breeze. 



The reach of the river formed by the main land and the 

 island Booka Embomma on the north, and the islands Hekay 

 (Molyneux) and Booka (Leyland's) on the south, is a bason 

 surrounded by elevated hills composed of primitive granite, 

 or schistus ; in general the first formation is naked of trees, 

 and the second covered with brush M'ood, and large trees in 

 the crevices of the rock. The hills are all extremely rugged, 

 forming deep hollows, separated by natural causeways, and 

 much resembling, but on a greatly larger scale, the road 

 which passes the Devil's Punch Bowl between Portsmouth 

 and London ; the flattened summit on which the banza 

 stands is, as we observed in the groves, an under stratum of 

 compact clay covered with black mould, on which the ridges 



