240 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. LXXIX. 
Mohammedan Mandingoes to the south. The sandy 
downs were lined with a fine belt of trees. Three 
different paths lead over these downs into the interior, 
the most important being the track leading straight 
to Dore, the chief place of the province of Libtako, 
and joining, at a very extensive lake or backwater, 
called Khalebleb, the road leading to the same place 
from Burre to the south of the island Ans6ngho, lower 
down the river. At present, a broad swampy low- 
land spread out bet^veen the downs and the brink of 
the river. 
The chief of my companions, A'hmed el Wddawi, 
being once more called beyond the river into the 
presence of the Sheikh, we did not leave this place 
till a late hour in the afternoon, keeping along the 
low swampy shore. After a while, an open branch 
approached us from the river on our left, forming an 
island of the name of Berta. Here an animated scene 
presented itself to our eyes. An immense female hip- 
popotamus was driving her calf before her, and pro- 
tecting it from behind, her body half out of the water, 
while a great number of agamba " and " zangway," 
crocodiles and alligators, were basking in the sun on 
the low sandbanks, and glided into the water with 
great celerity at the noise of our approach. 
Here the swampy shore presented some cultivation 
of rice, while, on the opposite side, the river was 
bounded by the rocky cliffs of Tin-sheran, but the 
sandy beach, which a week previously had been ani- 
mated by the numerous encampments of the Gd-bero, 
