TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
109 
back to me in the evening. He left us at four 
o'clock, and the asses returned at nine the same 
afternoon. The country about this town is 
really beautifully diversified with hill and dale, 
both covered with wood, some of which is very 
large. At a short distance to the se. is the 
dry bed of a stream which, during the rains, 
runs to the sw. and joins the Gambia. The in- 
habitants here had commenced preparing their 
corn and rice grounds, in consequence of the 
very great appearance of approaching rain for 
the last two or three days, during which we had 
some thunder and lightning, accompanied with 
a perfect calm and intense heat of the sun and 
atmosphere. 
Little trouble is indeed necessary in this 
country for the purpose of cultivation j the 
ground is merely cleared of the old corn stalks, 
and such weeds and young wood as have sprung 
up during the dry weather ; all which are 
burnt, and the ashes strewed on the surface. 
Small holes are then made in the ground, distant 
from each other about a foot or eighteen inches, 
and two or three grains of corn dropped into 
each, which is filled by pushing a portion of the 
earth and the ashes before mentioned into it. In 
this state it remains, until it arrives at about two 
feet above the surface, when the ground be- 
tween is hoed up and cleared of weeds, a pro- 
