PIONEER WORK IN NIGERIA: THE SOKOTO GARDENS. 337 
when the heat becomes so dry and scorching — as from an oven door — 
that it withers the vegetation. The dry season is called the Har- 
mattan, on account of the whitish haze which persists day after day, 
covering everything with a fine white powder. (This is said to be 
caught up by the wind during its passage across the Sahara.) The 
wind blows with considerable force from dawn onwards, depositing 
sand in banks behind every obstruction, but dies down at sunset. 
In such a climate faith and enthusiasm alone could even think 
a garden. Any possibility of its realization depended on the choice 
of the position. 
The Sokoto country is open, undulating and sandy, and is broken 
up by long lines of flat- topped ironstone hills (laterite) , ending abruptly 
as they approach the great river valley. These hills are inhabited by 
hyaenas and monkeys, and, till recently, by leopards. A unique feature 
of the undulating country is its long winding, open, shallow valleys, 
shaded by a few tall trees, and rounded off at their heads by beautiful 
green, grassy amphitheatres. Down these valleys run perennial 
streams fed by springs of wonderfully clear water, which bubbles 
out of the soil, generally at the foot of an outcrop of laterite. Within 
the Sokoto station boundary itself are the heads of two such valleys, 
which, joining, pass into the great valley of the Sokoto river some 
three miles away. The more northerly of these was some years ago 
the site of a small garden, but the water has dried up, and is now quite 
ten feet below the surface. 
The other valley bounding the station on the west, with its 
sparkling springs, has yielded to cultivation, and proved an ideal 
position for a garden, ornamental as well as useful. It is part of 
this valley which has been taken in hand seriously by Dr. Bernard 
MoiSER during the last five years, and now gives an abundance of 
English vegetables and flowers throughout the year, and comprises 
lawns and shady walks, nooks and corners that would grace any 
garden in the homeland. 
Verily 1 the desert has been made to blossom. When all the rest 
of the country is baked hard and scorched brown, one can saunter 
there in the grateful shady coolness of the trees, or sit in trellised 
bowers, transplanted into a little world of greenery and fragrance. 
The garden valley runs roughly north and south, and varies in 
width from 100 to 150 yards, with gently sloping sides, and the little 
stream meanders along the trough. It is evergreen. Here and 
there clumps of very fine old trees, Vitex Cienkowskii (in Hausa, 
*Dinya'), with gnarled hollow stems supporting the great shady 
leafage above, grow on the banks (fig. 191). Amongst them are some 
rough-leaved fig-trees {Ficus gnaphalocarpa 7) (in Hausa,* Baure'). 
Lower down is along line of Egyptian Mimosa trees {Acacia arahica) 
(in Hausa, ' Bagaruwa which not only are very pleasing with their 
masses of little yellow flowers, but produce jointed pods used in 
tanning, and provide just the right amount of shade for growing 
Dahhas. On the opposite side are a couple of big African Locust 
VOL. XLVI. z 
