Chap. LXX. SALT AND GU'KO NUTS. 
27 
and expensive, and requires the agency and co- 
operation of several persons, no single merchant un- 
dertaking the whole of the traffic. 
I have already remarked, in the proper place, that 
Libtdko, or rather Dore, forms the market-place for 
the salt for supplying the provinces to the south-east 
of Timbuktu. It is transported thither by a direct 
road by way of Tosaye or Gogo, without touching at 
Timbuktu ; while, with regard to the region to the 
south-west, Sansandi is the great entrepot for this com- 
merce. The trade in this article, which, in countries 
where it is wanting entirely, becomes so precious, and 
the more so the greater its bulk, is, as I said before, of 
very ancient date in this western part of Negroland. 
But the salt was brought at that period, not from 
Taodenni, but from the neighbouring salt mines of 
Teghaza ; and, in the former period, found its en- 
trepot in Ghanata and Waldta. 
The giiro, or kola nut, which constitutes one of 
the greatest luxuries of Negroland, is also a most im- 
portant article of trade. Possessing this, the natives 
do not feel the want of coffee, which they might so 
easily cultivate to any extent, the coffee plant seeming 
to be indigenous in many parts of Negroland. The 
guro which is brought to the market of Timbuktu is 
imported from the provinces of Tangr^ra, the town 
which was touched at by M. Caillie on his journey 
from Sierra Leone to Morocco, and of Teute and 
Kdni, to the south of Time; while the giiro which 
is brought to the market of Kano is imported from 
