Chap. LII. A'SU AND THE SHA'Rl'. 
461 
derably. The distance which separated us from the 
river was not great ; but the latter part of the journey 
was so bad that my camel threw off its load no less 
than six times, so that my servants were almost in 
despair, and did not join me till several hours after 
my arrival in the town of A'su, and when I had 
made myself already comfortable in an excellent hut, 
built of clay, neatly polished, but from which I felt 
sorry to have driven away two spinsters, who had 
been its tenants. 
Having rested awhile, I went to obtain a sight of the 
river. Its magnitude had already surprised me, when 
I first saw it on coming from Logon, and it had de- 
lighted me as often as I looked down upon it from 
the village of Mele ; but it was now greatly increased 
in size, forming a broad sheet of water not less than 
one thousand yards across, and dotted with several 
little islands, while the high and gradually-shelving 
shore on this side was clothed with rich crops of 
Egyptian corn or masr (Zea Mais). Several small 
canoes, or rather boats, were lying on the shore ; but I 
looked in vain for one large enough to carry my 
camel, as I was really afraid to trust it to the stream. 
However, I was glad to observe that the current was 
not very strong ; and it did not seem to me to flow- 
faster than from about two and a half to three English 
miles an hour. Unfortunately, to-day also the wea- 
ther was very wet, so that strolling about was not 
so pleasant as it would otherwise have been. 
