Chap. XL VII. EMBARKIXG ON THE RIVER. 
297 
course, from the very beginning I could not expect to 
achieve great things, for the means which were at my 
disposal at the time did not allow me to overcome 
any serious obstacles which might be thrown in my 
way ; but besides this, the authority of this little 
prince of Logon extends only a short distance along 
the shores of the river. 
At eight o'clock I was aboard of my little boat or 
" woam."* I thought that I should have got one of 
the largest size ; but none was to be obtained. The 
boat, however, which was finally assigned to me, 
though measuring only twenty-five feet in length by 
about four feet in the middle, was tolerably strong, 
the planks of which it consisted being recently sewn 
and stuffed in the way above described ; but, of course, 
this method of shipbuilding is far from rendering the 
vessel watertight. The boats being without seats, 
large bundles of reeds are placed at the bottom for 
the passengers to sit upon, with nothing to prevent 
them from being drenched with water. 
While we crossed to the other side of the river, 
passing numerous sandbanks which at present had 
been laid bare, the town presented quite an interest- 
ing prospect, the wall being overtopped by durn-palms, 
or " guriiru," a pair of deleb-palms, " murgiim," and 
an isolated date-tree, " difnno," f these three species 
* This word is only another form of the name which the Yedina 
give to the boat, viz. " pum." 
| It is very remarkable and interesting that the date-palm, in 
all these countries as far as Bagirmi, goes by the Hausa name 
" debino," from which circumstance it is plain that it was first in- 
troduced into that part of Negroland. Even the Fulbe of Sokoto 
