20 REPORT OF THE HARVARD AFRICAN EXPEDITION 
The lagoons and tidal creeks which have been described, the marshes, par- 
ticularly about Monrovia and its vicinity, and the decaying vegetation in and 
about them, have an important bearing on the sanitary condition of these 
places and particularly on insect-borne diseases and their prevention. 
Travelling along the coast southward, the next important river 1s the St. 
John, which enters the sea near the village of Grand Bassa. The source and the 
course of this river also have not been accurately determined. However, the 
St. John is known to flow in general in a southwesterly direction through ap- 
proximately the center of Liberia. The Expedition crossed it or its tributaries 
on several occasions, the most northerly point being close to the border of Li- 
beria and French Guinea near the town of Banga. During much of its course it 
flows through forests. We found no boats on this river in the interior, and were 
compelled to cross it on rafts constructed of freshly hewn forest trees. Near 
its mouth, on the coast, are the villages of Buchanan and Upper Buchanan. 
Just before it flows into the sea its mouth widens and there are several small 
islands where the Benson Creek on the left and the Mechelin on the right enter it. 
The bay formed by MacDonald Point, beyond which the St. John enters 
the ocean, and the Grand Bassa Point some few miles to the southeast, is studded 
with dangerous reefs. On account of the high surf and river current, landing 
at the mouth of the St. John is more or less difficult at any time of the year, and 
especially so in the rainy season when the breakers are exceptionally high and 
perilous. The promontory of Grand Bassa and the reefs in the vicinity to some 
extent, protect the anchorage in this bay. We were compelled to land at Grand 
Bassa through the surf where the waves were at the time much lower than in 
the vicinity of the mouth of the St. John River. 
The next important river to empty upon the coast, as you travel southward, 
is the River Cess. It was located by us as far inland as Sauro on the eastern 
border of Liberia and the hinterland of the French Ivory Coast. Johnston 1 
says it probably rises in the Satro Mountains. However, according to the 
available maps, the Satro Mountains are situated some thirty or forty miles 
either south or southwest of Sauro. The Expedition crossed this river in the 
dense Bassa Forest at the village of Trué, some fifty miles from the coast. The 
mouth of the river is closed at the sea by a bar and by ledges of rocks over 
which, at ebb tide, the water is only three or four feet deep. 
The coast southward is still more rocky and the entrance to the Sangwin 
River, the next large tributary, is beset with rocks and reefs, which make pass- 
ing through its mouth a dangerous procedure unless one is familiar with the 
place. There is, however, at the south, a fairly clear channel over a bar which 
is said to have from eight to ten feet of water at ebb tide. To the east of the 
mouth of the Sangwin River is the promontory of Baffu Point, already referred 
to, with a small bay beyond it. We travelled parallel to this river for some dis- 
tance in its course through the forest in the interior, and crossed many of its 
small tributaries or entering streams. We crossed it in canoes for the last time 
at the village of Towya, some twenty-eight miles from the seacoast. 
1 Johnston: Loc. cit., p. 462. 
