14 REPORT OF THE HARVARD AFRICAN EXPEDITION 
Shuguri River. Fisherman’s Lake is a large sheet of brackish water, subject to 
the influence of the tides, and in places surrounded by mangrove swamps. 
Several small streams enter it from the northeast. It is about ten miles long and 
from three to four miles wide, with an approximate depth of from five to fifteen 
feet. The entrance both to the Mafa River and the outlet of Fisherman’s Lake 
is just to the north of the promontory of Cape Mount. At low tide there are 
but three feet of water on the bar, a fact which unfortunately precludes the 
construction of a useful harbor behind Cape Mount in what is perhaps the most 
attractive situation on the coast. Cape Mount itself is surrounded on three 
sides by the ocean and by its situation and superior altitude above the sea, 1s 
exposed to much cooler breezes than the surrounding coast land and consequently 
is a more favorable position for a residence. On both sides of the promontory, 
the shore is low and marshy. 
At the foot of the northwestern side the Liberian town of Robertport is 
situated and on the higher ground near the summit of the headland, a small 
village has been built, near which is the Episcopal Mission with its separate 
schools for boys and girls. 
On the coast for several miles round, is a succession of small settlements, the 
most important of which are Royesville and Fahi, and which are occupied for 
the most part either by members of the Vai tribe or by Americo-Liberians. 
East of Cape Mount the coast is low and even swampy. The little Cape 
Mount River, sometimes called the Lofa, flows into the ocean about half- 
way between Cape Mount and the next cape, Mesurado. In its lower course 
it runs through the Po range of hills. Its course in the interior is not known, but 
the suggestion has been made that it forms the lower part of that river further 
north which is given on some maps as the Lofa, and said to rise in the Mandingo 
Plateau. 
A short distance from the mouth of the Little Cape Mount River is a stream 
called by some of the inhabitants the Poba River, near which another Vai settle- 
ment named Roysville ! is situated. 
A few miles farther to the eastward, one reaches the mouth of the St. Paul 
River, one of the largest in Liberia, the upper part of which is known as the De 
(Illustration No. 434). Possibly a river referred to by French explorers as the 
Diani and said to rise in the French Sudan may also form a remote part of the 
St. Paul or perhaps one of its tributaries. The length of the St. Paul has been 
given by Johnston ? as two hundred and eighty miles, on the assumption that 
its source is that of the Dianiin the Mandingo Plateau. However, neither the 
source of the St. Paul nor its actual course has been accurately charted. As 
will be seen from Map II, the members of the Expedition were frequently in its 
vicinity and in that of its tributaries. 
We have referred to the fact that the mouth of the St. Paul is closed for ocean 
steamers by a wide and dangerous sand bar at its mouth. There is, however, 
a narrow tidal channel known as Stockton’s Creek, which connects the lower 
' The name of this town is apparently generally spelled differently from the more northward Roves- 
ville. ? Sir Harry Johnston: “Liberia’’ (1906), I, 438. ‘ 
