180 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
and villages, are for the most part cleared for the 
purpose of cultivation, to which the soil, being 
a light sand mixed with brown vegetable mould, 
seems well adapted. Innumerable beds of tor- 
rents intersect these valleys in all directions, and 
serve during the rains, being dry at all other 
times, to conduct the water collected by the high 
grounds to the Fa-lemme and Senegal. Great 
numbers of tamarinds, baobabs, rhamnus lotus, 
and other fruit-trees, are beautifully scattered 
over these valleys, which are rendered still more 
picturesque by the frequent appearance of a 
village or walled town, in whose vicinity are al- 
ways a number of cotton and indigo plantations. 
The proportion of land cultivated is small, 
but sufficient to supply the inhabitants abun- 
dantly with all the productions of the country ; 
these are corn in four varieties, together with 
rice, pumpions, water-melons, gourds, sorrell, 
onions, tobacco, red pepper, pistacios, cotton, 
and indigo. 
The commerce, and in which the greater pro- 
portion of the inhabitants are engaged, consists in 
the exchange of the cotton cloths manufactured 
in the country, and the superabundance of their 
provisions, for gold, ivory, and slaves brought 
thither by the people of Bamboak, Kasson, and 
Foota Jallon ; and for European merchandize, 
such as fire-arms, gunpowder, India goods, 
