264 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
Chat. LX. 
by the richest vegetation, and by abundance of rank 
grass, runs at this spot from S.E. to N.W., with a 
depth of about three feet, and at times, when a great 
deal of rain has fallen, forming a far more considerable 
volume of water. 
The country which we then entered was hilly, 
tolerably well cultivated, and thickly inhabited. It 
was adorned here and there with the baobab tree, 
and a fine leafy tree called here a hanina." But 
we made only a short march, being induced, on ac- 
count of the danger of the road before us, to take up 
our quarters in a farming-village, situated in a very 
rich tract of country, behind a flat-topped cone, at the 
distance of a little more than four miles from Cham- 
palawel. Notwithstanding the fertility of the dis- 
trict, no corn was to be obtained here at present, the 
last year's harvest having failed entirely, so that the 
people were obliged to supply their own wants at 
Bosebango. This scarcity is increased generally in 
districts where only one species of corn is grown, 
all the produce here being reduced to millet ; while 
where various grains are raised, which ripen at differ- 
ent seasons, even in these countries, dearth cannot 
prevail to such an extent and for so long a time. All 
the inhabitants, including even the head man, be- 
longed to the native Gurma race. All the cattle- 
breeding is in the hands of the Fulbe, who regard 
"the cow as the most useful animal in creation," — 
" negge ngombiiri deya fo nafa and, there being no 
such people in the neighbourhood, no milk was to be 
