Chap. XLIV. 
FINE LANDSCAPE. 
209 
slender detached d um-palms towered picturesquely 
above the green foliage, but no deleb-palms were to 
be seen. Then followed another village, likewise de- 
serted by its unfortunate inhabitants, and then again 
open meadow-lands, intersected by a narrow channel- 
like watercourse, in a direction from S.W. to IST.E. 
The watercourse was from sixty to seventy yards 
broad, and inclosed so regularly between its banks, 
which were about ten feet high, that it had quite the 
appearance of an artificial canal, — a peculiarity which 
in the course of time I frequently observed, not only 
here, but also in the similar watercourses along the 
Niger. At the point where we crossed it, the sheet 
of water was entirely broken by a small sandbank, so 
that we went over without wetting our feet. How- 
ever, I conjectured that this was an artificial dyke 
thrown up by the persecuted natives, in order to 
keep open an easy connection with the river, on which 
alone their safety depended. Without any delay the 
expedition pushed on, in the hope of overtaking the 
fugitives before they had crossed the river ; for here we 
were quite close to the western shore of the river of 
Logon, which is generally, but erroneously, called 
Shari, while this name, which belongs to the language 
of the Kotoko, and means " river" in general, applies 
more properly to the larger eastern branch below Kle- 
sem, which is inhabited by Kotoko, and to the united 
stream lower down below the junction of the two 
branches. In this place the river, or " ere," is called 
Serbewuel, I think, in the Musgu language ; higher 
VOL. III. p 
