10 
MISSIONARY LIFE 
Below the Sierra Leone mountains, and imme- 
diately on the coast, the country is low and 
marshy, and much of it is inundated with water 
when the streams are highest during the rainy 
season. The country is thickly interspersed with 
rivers, many of which are mere tide-water streams 
in the dry season ; or at most, above the point 
where the tide ceases to affect them they dwindle 
down to small creeks and rivulets. 
The principal timber of the lowlands is the 
mangrove-tree. A little of other kinds, such as 
bamboo, palm, cotton, and so on, is to be found. On 
the highlands the soil, timber, and general appear- 
ance of the country is different, — the soil being ar- 
gillaceous and more fertile than in the lowlands, the 
country undulating, and much of it without tim- 
ber, and covered thickly with very tall grass. 
The physical geography of Africa is full of in- 
terest; but it is foreign to my object to enter 
upon its consideration and with this bare allusion 
to it I dismiss the subject. 
