THE BENIN BRANCH. 
199 
were gathered. It is an admirable spot for cultiva- 
tion containing about twenty-five square miles of land, 
almost free from forest; but the climate must be 
most pestilential, as, after the floods, a great deal 
of stagnant water always remains among the luxu- 
riant vegetation, which is the case throughout the 
Delta : — though on the margin of the river the banks 
appear firm, beyond them there are no doubt large 
tracts, which if not, properly speaking, morasses, are in- 
tersected by creeks in all directions, in which the water 
is left by the falling river. But of course, this state 
obtains more in the neighbourhood of the mangrove 
portion of the Delta, where the sluggish water has not 
time to be carried off by evaporation in the dry season, 
and thus remains a permanent cause of fever. 
We went a little way down the fine branch, called by 
Lander the Benin, though without any reason than that, 
by an endless perplexity of creeks, the town of Benin 
may be reached ; or, with more probability, because a 
large portion of the water of the Niger is discharged by 
it into the Bight of Benin by various mouths, as the 
Rio “ Warree,” or Formoso, the Escardos, Forcados, &c. 
We found the channel about six hundred and ninety- 
six yards wide, very much broken up by islands ; the 
current not so strong as in the Nun branch, about one 
knot and a half, and the water not so regularly deep ; 
though at one place, where we hotanised from the 
paddle-box, it had five fathoms close to the bank. 
