FROM FORT LAMY TO THE TOGBAU HILLS 167 



At Miltu the character of the bush beyond the river belts 

 alters a good deal. Mimosa trees are no longer to be seen. 

 Instead, there is the usual West African bush, very low and 

 in places scanty with the prevailing shea-butter tree that is 

 found so much in the Gold Coast Hinterland. In this region 

 there are plenty of birds, among which I met with several 

 old friends from West Africa. No doubt this is the road 

 eastward for the Senegambian fauna. 



We resumed our journey on July 9 and after travelling for 

 many days through a flat, featureless country, the monotony 

 was one day broken by the outline of hills distant a day's 

 journey to the south. These were the Togbau hills, and 

 the next evening we were camping at their foot. They 

 are about 300 ft. high and consist of two ranges running 

 at right angles to the river. They are a mile in length 

 and are parallel to each other 1000 yards apart, and a 

 fertile valley lies between. The French call them the 

 Togbau, after a big Sara chief who was captured by Rabeh 

 and taken to Dikwa, but on the German map they 

 are named Mielin. They are a curious, volcanic upheaval 

 standing isolated in the great bush plain. Thick-leaved trees 

 and scrub cling where there is foothold in the crevices of the 

 huge boulders that are tumbled about in picturesque confu- 

 sion, some piled, one upon another, like monuments of an 

 uncouth age. At the foot of the hills lie settlements of a 

 large Sara village, scattered among the growing corn. 



We pitched our tents in the dry bed of a loop in the river, 

 formed by an island. Here at the junction with the main 

 stream the Sara carry on their fishing. Large oblong 

 enclosures made of canes are placed at intervals in the water, 



