72 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
Chap. LIV. 
and the lake, the baiire and the gawasii are the 
common trees. 
The presence of the latter at this spot seems very 
remarkable, as this tree, in general, is looked for in 
vain in this whole region ; and I scarcely remember to 
have seen it again before reaching the village, a few 
miles to the N.E. of Wurn6, which has thence re- 
ceived its name. 
The papyrus covers the whole shore at the point 
of junction of the two lakes, while in the water itself, 
where it first becomes brackish, another kind of weed 
was seen, called " kumba," the core of which is like- 
wise eaten by the greater part of the poorer inhabi- 
tants, and is more esteemed than the meles. It was 
highly interesting to me to observe that my young 
Shuwa companion, who was brought up on the shores 
of the Tsad, immediately recognised, from the species 
of reeds, the nature of the water on the border of 
which they grew, as this mixed character of brackish 
and sweet water is, exactly in the same manner, pe- 
culiar to the outlying smaller basins of that great 
Central African lagoon.* 
I found the junction of the two lakes from sixty-five 
to seventy yards broad, and at present fordable, the 
water being four feet and a half in depth. The differ- 
ence in the appearance of the natron lake, from that ex- 
hibited by the fresh- water basin, was remarkable in the 
extreme, — the water of the one being of a dark- blue 
* See w hat I have said on this subject, Vol. II. p. 325. 
