PROFESSOR SMITH'S JOURNAL. 309 



August 6. I had landed for a moment on Tchinsala, 

 but a shot called me immediately back again. Our flo- 

 tilla was already under sail at one o'clock. The Umg- 

 boat of the ship is to go as far as Benda. We crossed 

 the river several times according to the streno;th of the 

 current. The mountains come down to the river, and in 

 many places contract its channel to scarcely half a mile; 

 They are rounded, and commonly sloping hills with narrow 

 and short vallies between them. They are overgrown 

 with dry grass, but otherwise entirely naked. The south- 

 side had at first more level ground, with rising blocks of 

 slate dispersed over its surface. At Vinda, a small plain, 

 the mountain ah ng the northern bank is very steep, the 

 declivity about forty-five degrees, and sometimes almost 

 vertical, out of which were projected several rocky points. 

 It is only near the high grass on the banks of the river and 

 in the vallies that trees of luxuriant growth are to be seen. 

 On the small plains at the heads of creeks we observed some 

 villages amidst palms of Hyphane, which were also seen 

 scattered about higher up the sides of the mountains. 

 The banks, with their precipitous cliffs of slate, overgrown 

 with a hanging green tapestry of climbers, and surmounted 

 with j)lants and trees of various kinds, among which is a 

 high and always naked Ada7isunin, present indeed a 

 picturesque view, but nothing yet inspires the notion of 

 an extraordinary grand river. We anchored above three 

 islands (Tanyanda), on the northern bank, near where it 

 is studded with high rocks. One of these v/as said to be 

 used for the same purposes as the Tarpeian rock of old, 



