m 
ADAMs's NARRATIVE. 
heard roaring in the neighbouring mountains. 
Wolves and foxes are numerous, and commit 
great depredations. Elephants are hunted by the 
negroes mounted on a heirie, the swiftness of 
which enables them to approach and retire with- 
out danger. The flesh is eaten for food, and the 
teeth are of great value, Adams has somewhat 
committed his reputation, by asserting that an 
elephant which he saw killed was twenty feet 
high, and had four tusks. To this he has added 
the report of an animal about the size of a large 
dog, called courcoo, having an opening in its back 
like a pocket, in which it carries its prey. Nei- 
ther of these statements are very credible ; but 
the editor justly observes, that a personage such 
as Adams, reporting, at the distance of four years, 
what he had observed, not at all with the eye of 
a naturalist, could not be expected to be rigidly 
accurate upon every point. The courcoo he had 
never seen himself, but received merely the re- 
port of the negroes upon it. 
The domestic birds are Guinea fowls. The 
wild birds are ostriches, owls, eagles, crows, green 
parrots, a large brown bird that lives upon fish, 
and several smaller birds. The river is well stored 
with fish. 
It may be proper to bring together all the state- 
ments of Adams, relative to the interesting sub- 
ject of the commerce of Tombuctoo. He makes 
