ITS PRODUCTIONS. 293 
foot of these mountains, are but immense reservoirs, which 
supply the sources of these rivers ; in walking over them the 
earth resounds under your feet. ^ , 
The soil of these plains is a rich mould, which the rains 
and the torrents have washed from the tops of the moun- 
tains ; that of the mountains consists entirely of cinders, 
mixed with ferruginous stones, and remains of plants. The 
soil is favourable to the foigné, a species of small millet, and 
to ground pistachio-nuts, ( arachis hypogœa.J^ In the forests 
there are very few trees, the flowers of which are odoriferous ; 
the caura, the tekeli, the so7ie, bear fruits of which the Poulas 
are passionately fond ; but that which produces the tieké is 
indisputably the best ; it has the form and colour of the 
cherry, but the taste and seeds of the mulberry. 
The districts between Toulou and Timbo are the most 
fertile ; the orange, banana, and papaw tree, rice and maize 
grow there ; but millet, with which humidity does not agree, 
is scarce. If the enormous baobab is not to be seen there, the 
forests are composed of other trees of very large dimensions. 
The rocks which form the beds of most of these rivers, 
are granitoid diabase ; nature has shaded them with thick 
* The pistachio has the taste of a hazel nut, especially when deprived of 
its oil by roasting. This nut grows in the ground at the extremity of a root, 
which shoots out a species of very green leaf, resembling trefoil; the Negroes 
make it into bundles, which they store up as fodder for their horses in the 
dry season. 
