104 RIVER NUN. 



he is at the head of the three great outlets of the 

 Niger, — the Benin, the Bonny, and the Nun. 



Between the head of these outlets and the 

 sea, a distance of one hundred and sixty miles, is 

 the delta of the Niger, which delta extends from 

 Lagos on the west to Old Calebar on the east. 

 Through this delta its waters are discharged into 

 the ocean by twenty-two mouths, the principal 

 of which are the Benin, Warree, Nun, Bonny, 

 and Old Calebar.* The Nun branch is the only 

 one yet explored, and a general description of it 

 may not be misplaced here. 



The course of the Nun branch between the 

 sea and Eboe is exceedingly serpentine ; but its 

 mean course from Eboe to the sea is south half- 

 west by compass. Its breadth varies from 

 thirty yards at the entrance, or Louis Creek, 

 as we named it, to one thousand or twelve 

 hundred at Eboe, gradually widening as it nears 

 its parent stream. An astonishing number of 

 branches of all sizes flow out of it, the larger 

 ones all in a south-west direction ; and on exa- 



* Perhaps Old Calebar should not be called a mouth of 

 the Niger, although communicating with it, as it most pro- 

 bably receives a great portion of its water from the east- 

 ward. 



