144 REPORT OF THE HARVARD AFRICAN EXPEDITION 
man would then swim the river with this rope and tie the other end to a tree 
on the opposite side. The rafts would then be ferried back and forth with 
passengers and supplies. The swift currents usually made this method of ferry- 
ing particularly satisfactory, for it obviated both the need of poling or pad- 
dling and the danger of having rafts and supplies swept downstream. 
After a general idea of the conditions in the central regions of the country 
had been obtained, and an expedition made to the northeast at Garmu, on 
the border of French Guinea, in order that more territory might be covered, 
the Expedition was divided into two parties, the first of which, together with 
our collections, tentage, etc., returned to the coast and Monrovia through the 
country forming the western half of the basin of the St. Paul River, while the 
second proceeded to the eastern border of the country on the Ivory Coast, 
and then southward through the densely forested and little known part of 
Liberia to the sea. It was in this march southward that our greatest difficul- 
ties in travel were encountered. In various villages men were so scarce that 
some women had to be employed as porters. The people were wilder and 
more superstitious, and had had far less contact with civilization. Some of 
them apparently had not seen white men before. It was particularly in that 
part of the country which is marked on the published maps as the “ Big Bush”’ 
that our greatest difficulty with porters arose. 
After we got into the dense virgin forest there were in places no regular trails, 
and at times we travelled chiefly by compass, but often followed the beds of 
dried-up streams, which of course never run straight for any distance. Prog- 
ress through this forest was especially difficult on account of its density. In 
many places the slender trunks of the trees were so close together that there 
was barely enough room for a man’s body to pass between them. This condition 
of affairs coupled with the fact that here and there the overhanging branches, 
lianas, and other forest growth were unusually low, especially impeded the 
progress of the porters with loads on their heads or swung on poles. In such 
regions the frequent use of the machete was required in cutting a passage. 
Another obstacle to travel was that the ground was covered with a veritable 
network of radiating and interlacing surface roots which no doubt the heavy 
rains had exposed. Most of these surface roots are only a few inches high, 
but many are higher and form barriers or buttresses several feet tall and from 
ten to fifteen feet in width. One is particularly struck with the fact that the 
roots of the trees spread out rather than grow down, a phenomenon due in part 
to the hard granite rock which is found at a depth of usually not greater and 
often less than six or seven feet below the leaf mold of the forest. One result 
is that a great many of the giant trees of the forest, besides those that had died, 
had fallen, probably during hurricanes and strong winds. Some of them had 
trunks four or five feet in diameter, which when found lying across one’s path, 
had of course either to be climbed over or walked round. All these things, 
trivial as they may seem, always delay considerably a long column of travel, 
because before every serious obstacle the load usually has to be put down and 
again placed on the head of the porter after the obstacle is passed. 
