NATURAL PRODUCE. 165 



ful, the former much inferior to those of Eboe. 

 The river abounds in fish to a degree that is 

 almost inconceivable, and the inhabitants of 

 the banks are expert and persevering fisher- 

 men. They make immense nets of grass, which 

 they use as seines with great dexterity. They 

 are very careful of their nets after using them, 

 and stretch them on poles to be dried by the sun 

 exactly as our fishermen do. The fish are split 

 by them and gutted, they are then dried by the 

 smoke of a wood fire, and form with farinaceous 

 food their principal means of subsistence. — Fruits 

 are not plentiful on the banks of the river : plan- 

 tains, bananas, limes, tamarinds, a species of 

 plum, and pine-apples, constitute the whole. The 

 latter are exceedingly scarce, and the former by 

 no means abundant. 



The intercourse and trade between the towns 

 on the banks is very great, (I was surprised to 

 learn from Dr. Briggs that there appeared to be 

 twice as much traflSc going forward here as in 

 the upper parts of the Rhine,) the whole popu- 

 lation on the Niger being eminently of a com- 

 mercial character, men, women, and children 

 carrying on trade. The traffic in slaves, cloth, 

 and ivory is confined to the men ; everything else 



