22 REPORT OF THE HARVARD AFRICAN EXPEDITION 
The next important river entering the sea is the Sino, the mouth of which 1s 
at the town of Greenville or Sino. Of the entrance to the mouth of this river, 
Johnston states that to those who are greedy of sensational experience, he would 
recommend landing at a time of the tide and of the year when the surf is bad. 
Leaving the steamer at a distance of about three-quarters of a mile off Blubarra Point, they 
will be rowed over the lumpy waves for a distance of a mile before the actual danger commences. 
To avoid the worst of the rollers they will have to pass very close to the Savage Rocks on North 
Point, rocks which above and below water exhibit sharp fangs on which, with the slightest contact, 
a boat would be instantly impaled. To the west and north are great sand banks on which the 
breakers are foaming angrily, and chains of rocks or rocky islands. As the extremity of North 
Point is reached, the boat, propelled with all the vigor of Kru boy arms, and with all the way on her, 
is suddenly arrested by the force of the tremendous current of the Sino River which pours violently 
as from some cataract round North Point into the sea. If the tide is at the ebb it is well nigh im- 
possible to withstand the force of this current, which is striving to dash the boat on the Savage 
Rocks or fling it on the sand bank where the surf would break it to pieces. But the Kru boys usually 
know their danger and they have become used and callous, and though the boat may remain 
stationary for half an hour while the boys strain their muscles to keep it from gliding backwards 
on to the rocks or the shallows, it usually begins at length to move forward by inches and then by 
feet until North Point is rounded and the boat makes its way into the relatively tranquil stream of 
the clear river and to the town of Greenville. 
It is perhaps necessary to enter or leave the mouth of the Sino to appreciate 
the difficulties of the passage. It was from this point that part of the Expedition 
travelled in surf boats up the coast of Liberia to Monrovia. The river can be 
navigated by canoes for about fifteen miles up stream. Usually, however, 
navigation even in canoes is difficult for more than ten or twelve miles of its 
course. A creek, starting from the eastern bank of the river near its mouth, 
runs parallel with the coast at a distance of from two to three miles from the sea. 
The Grand Cess River, which is the next one encountered in travelling south, 
enters the sea through a very narrow opening at the village of Grand Cess. 
Apparently the most important point about it is that near the coast it forms the 
geographical boundary between the so-called provinces of Sino and Maryland. 
We did not visit this river. 
The last river of any importance to reach the Liberian coast is the Cavalla. 
It marks the southern boundary of Liberia and flows between it and the Ivory 
Coast. Probably the longest stream in Liberia, it is the most important in size, 
since it is navigable for small vessels for sixty to eighty miles, from the point a 
few miles eastward from Cape Palmas where it empties over a dangerous bar 
into the sea. Owing to the bar, the village of Harper, several miles away, has 
been found a more suitable point than the mouth of the river for disembarking 
passengers and goods destined for this part of the country. At Harper a salt 
lagoon, known as Shepherd Lake, affords a means of transport by canoes for 
goods intended for settlements on the river. At the present time the French 
have complete control over this stream. It does not enter Liberian territory. 
Reference has been made to the fact that with the exception of the few pro- 
montories already referred to, the coast of Liberia is low and only broken here 
and there by the mouths of the rivers and by numerous tidal creeks and lagoons. 
More or less low land with swampy areas prevails round all the villages and 
