1857.] THE NIGER EXPEDITION. 209 



THE NIGER EXPEDITION. 

 A Letter from Mr. C. Barter. 



Free Town, Sierra Leone, May 12th, 1857. 



My dear Sir, — In my hurried departure from England I had 

 not time to call on you ere leaving. The mail, at first delayed 

 by an accident, then put to sea some time before my notice first 

 received indicated : hence adieus to friends were hastily paid, and 

 I regret in some instances altogether omitted. Pardon me in 

 your own case, and accept the explanation ofiered. I have been 

 here about three weeks with Dr. Baikie, and Mr. Dalton, who 

 accompanied him as zoologist in his former expedition up the 

 Niger ; we therefore comprise the advanced corps of the present 

 enterprise. It being necessary to make preparations here. Dr. , 

 Baikie is busy with " palavers," and in selecting his interpreter 

 for the languages of the various countries to be visited (and here 

 perhaps there is scarcely a nation in Africa that is not represented 

 by some wanderer, drawn to the colony through trade or for pro- 

 tection) . This completed, we shaU proceed on to Fernando Po, 

 where the small steamer from England will join us; we shall 

 then muster some twelve or thirteen Europeans with from fifty 

 to a hundred Kroomen, and proceed up the river early in June. 



The stay here gives me an introduction to the peculiar vege- 

 tation of this climate. With Mr. Dalton I have run over most 

 of the mountains near the town, and scrambled up the deep ra- 

 vines which abound betwixt them. So much novelty renders these 

 spots almost enchanting. As we wind through tangled plants, or 

 crawl over masses of rock, my friend captures his imfortunate 

 lizards, snakes, and beetles, and consigns them to the world of 

 spirits, attacked in turn by the ants, which seem keenly aware of 

 the importance of anatomical specimens, and would soon produce 

 a skeleton in the human subject. 



In some sheltered nooks an immense number of species are 

 found in a small area. Epiphytes and parasites abound on the 

 rocks and trees. Ferns here, now Orchids, which sit on the 

 branches as if fallen from the clouds ; climbers smothering the 

 plant that supports them ; huge Ficus throwing its mazy roots 

 round some ancient tree, which is fast decaying — dying in the 

 grasp of the giant that encircles it ; — plants above our heads ; 



N. S. VOL. II. 2 E 



