Chap. LXXIX. IRON GATES OF AKARA'mBAY. 249 
four to six miles, the ground being open, and the 
view only for a short time shut in by a dense grove 
of gerredh and talha trees. 
Further on the river afforded a very wild spectacle, 
a sketch of which is represented in the plate opposite. 
In the distance before us, the iron gates of Akarambay 
became visible, bordered by the high sandy downs of 
Tidejititen ; a grand mass of rock, like an immense ar- 
tificial wall, with a strong northerly dip, started up 
from the creek ; and from the extensive grassy island 
of Ansongho similar masses appeared, which rose to 
an elevation of from seventy to eighty feet. Gradually 
the shore became more stony and barren, forming a 
plain called Erarar-n-tesawel, by the Tawarek, and 
Farri, by the Songhay. We passed a deserted hamlet 
which had formerly been inhabited by the Fde-Musa, 
and here the river again approached nearer on our 
left, but after a short time it again receded and be- 
came obstructed by ledges of rocks, especially at the 
place called Tazori, where an uninterrupted ridge 
of cliffs breaks through the surface of the water. 
Even at this season of the year, it leaves a small 
channel beyond the grassy shore, which evidently 
connects the open water above and below the rapids. 
About 1500 yards below this ledge, in a south- 
easterly direction, we reached the iron gates of Aka- 
rambay, where the river, or at least this westerly 
branch of it, is forced through between two consider- 
able masses of rock, at present from thirty -five to forty 
feet high, and about as many yards distant from each 
