316 JAS. -T. SIMPSON — ENTOMOLOGICAL 



a start at Yelwa, so that in my next report (on Southern Nigeria) the description 

 of the Niger from Idah to the sea will form a consecutive account with this. 



The River Niger rises in the Kong Mountains near the borders of Sierra 

 Leone, about 200 mile from the coast. It first rvms in a north-easterly direction to 

 Timbuktu (in 16° 40' North and 2° 40' West), a distance of nearly 500 miles. 

 It then turns eastwards for about 150 miles to Buram Island, and afterwards 

 south-easterly to Yelwa, a distance of over 450 miles. It is on this last stretch 

 that it enters Northern Nigeria, near the small village of Tunga, which is about 

 100 miles from Yelwa. From Tunga to the sea is roughly 700 miles, while from 

 the source to Tunga is almost 1200 miles. From Yelwa it runs almost due south 

 to Jebba, then eastwards to Baro, and from this point nearly due south to 

 Southern Nigeria, which it enters at Idah, 289 miles from the coast. South of 

 Abo, in Southern Nigeria, it spreads into an enormous delta with an intricate 

 network of channels and creeks, and its various mouths extend over 200 miles of 

 the coast. Its total length is therefore about 1900 miles, of which 1200 miles 

 are outside British territory, 420 are in Northern, and 280 in Southern Nigeria. 



Tunga to Yelwa. 



This part of the river I was unable to examine, and as no blood-sucking files 

 have been recorded from this stretch, I shall content myself with quoting a short 

 description* for the sake of completeness. " At Yelwa, the banks become low 

 and swampy, the hills begin to recede from the river, and five miles further on, 

 near the village of SakassI, the last set of minor rapids {i.e., from south to 

 north) occurs in the channel. Beyond Sakassi, the whole aspect of the river 

 changes, the channel becomes broad and sandy, and is obstructed by nothing 

 more serious than sand-bars. On the north bank a broad, swampy plain, with 

 low rising ground in the distance, bounds the river as far as the mouth of the 

 Kebbi. From Kebbi to the swamps of Illo, an open sandy plain stretches 

 northwards between the river and the base of the plateau. On the south bank, 

 the gently undulating plain which bounds the river stretches westward to the 

 Dahomey border, broken only by some scattered groups of low-topped hills." 



Yelwa to Jehba. 



This journey can be accomplished only in native canoes, and even by this 

 means only during the season of highest water in the river, that is after the 

 middle of the rains, owing to the numerous rocks which occur, and the number 

 of rapids to be traversed. Six days were spent by the writer on this 

 part of the river, and two at Bussa, the whole trip lasting from the 14th to 

 the 21st of September. This method of examining a river is undoubtedly 

 the best, as the rate of locomotion is slow, and it is possible to keep close in to 

 the banks and land at any point which seems to merit special attention. The 

 valley of the Niger from Yelwa to Ineku is wide and bounded by low hills with 

 scanty forest growth ; at Ineku the river divides into two and encloses a large 

 and extensive island, which stretches to Warra, where the two channels again join 

 into one broad slow-fiowing stream, with a wide flood-plain covered with long 



*' From " The Geography and Geology of N. Nigeria," by J. D. Falconer. 



