344 THE BIGHTS. 



with mangrove shrubberies, forming an intricate bower- 

 work of stems, which may be seen at low water en- 

 crusted with oysters, thus said by sailors to grow on 

 trees. The mountain range is sometimes visible as 

 a blue outline in the distance ; or the hills, which are 

 shaped like an elephant's back, draw near the shore : 

 or rugged spurs jut down with their rocks of torn and 

 tilted granite to the sea. The shore is sculptured into 

 curves ; and all along the coast runs a narrow line of 

 beach, sometimes dazzling white, sometimes orange 

 yellow, and sometimes a deep cinnamon red. 



This character of coast extends from Sierra Leone 

 to the Volta, and includes the ivory coast, the pepper 

 coast, and the gold coast. Then the country again 

 flattens ; the mountain range retires and gives place 

 to a gigantic swamp, through which the Niger de- 

 bouches by many mouths into the Bight of Benin, 

 where, according to the old sailor adage, " few come 

 out, though many go in." It is indeed the unhealthiest 

 region of an unhealthy coast. A network of creeks 

 and lagoons unite the various branches of the Niger, 

 and the marshes are filled with groves of palm oil-trees, 

 whose yellow bunches are as good as gold. But in 

 the old day the famous red oil was only used as food, 

 and the sinister name of the Slave Coast indicates the 

 commodity which it then produced. 



Again the hills approach the coast, and now they 

 tower up as mountains. The Peak of Cameroons is 

 situated on the line ; it is nearly as high as the Peak 

 of Teneriffe ; the flowers of Abyssinia adorn its upper 

 sides, and on its lofty summit the smoke of the vol- 

 cano steals mist-like across a sheet of snow. 



A little lower down, the primeval forest of the 

 Gorilla Country resembles that of the opposite Brazil ; 



