METHOD OF BUILDING CANOES. 
29 
These patches are alv/ays very ill fitted^ but the apertures 
which are left are stopped up with a mixture of bruised 
straw and clay. This compound is covered with a layer 
of fresh straw, which is fixed by a second stitching with 
bark-rope. I am astonished that boats thus constructed 
do not sink as soon as they are afloat. A man is kept con- 
stantly employed in baling them^ to prevent their filling 
with the water which penetrates through the seams. These 
canoes belonged to fishermen. Young girls, half naked, came 
on board to us with milk and fresh butter. 
The N.E. wind continued to blow till three o'clock, 
and it was five in the morning before we began to prepare 
for prosecuting our voyage„ We had scarcely gone a mile 
when we observed that two large boats had fallen astern, 
and we thought it right to wait for them. We were then 
off Baracondie, a village opposite to which there is a large 
island, which is inundated when the water is high. All the 
villages from lake Debo belong to the Diriman country, 
which extends to a great distance easterly. A number of 
pastoral Foulahs also inhabit the banks of the river, and 
remove with their flocks when the inundations commence. 
On the 8th of April, at five in the morning, we left 
Baracondie and directed our course westerly. About eleven 
we brought to off the village of Tircy. The N. E. wind, 
which blew a gale, obliged us to anchor. Here the river 
takes a turn towards the north. The village of Tircy con - 
tains about six hundred inhabitants ; it consists of straw 
huts, of the same form as those of the pastoral Foulahs who 
inhabit the banks of the Senegal. 
In the surrounding marshes I observed a number of 
negroes gathering a large herb, which grows only in marshy 
grounds. This plant is called kondoo : they dry it in the 
sun, and then pass it rapidly over a flame to burn off the 
leaves, as the stalks only are preserved. Of these they make 
large bundles, which they carry home on their heads. I 
