It was a quarter to seven o’clock in the morning when we left the sea of reeds in which we had moored our vessel, which, in the absence of an anchor, is done by fixing a pole on each side of the prow, and one at the stern of the boat. We began our day’s voyage by slowly gliding along the river, by the strength of a local current, which ran at the rate of about two miles an hour; but soon our boatmen began to make use of their oars, and we advanced with more rapidity. The open channel was here quite close to the eastern shore, the uniform level of which was broken by a hilly eminence covered with fine fields of millet, when we saw upon our left a smaller arm of the considerable channel running from the south-west. This, on inquiry, I found was in connection with that very watercourse which, at a later season, forms the general high road of those people who go from Sarayámo to Timbúktu. Even at this season of the year this branch is preferred by those who come from the north. Having passed this branch we halted awhile at the western shore, where, at a short distance inland, there is a small village called Koito, surrounded by fine trees. After a short delay we set out again on our zigzag voyage, while one of our boatmen, his harpoon in hand, proceeded on a fishing expedition. From a wide open water we soon got into a narrow channel, while the grassy expanse spread out on each side to a great extent; and, making our way with great difficulty, we emerged into a wide open branch, much more considerable than the one along which our course had lain, it being the principal trunk of the westerly watercourse of Sarayámo. As soon as we had entered it, some large specimens of the alligator tribe afforded proofs of a more extensive sheet of water, while the current, which at first was running against us, was so considerable that we advanced rather slowly. The whole breadth of the river or channel, forming one large unbroken sheet of water, was certainly not less than from 600 to 700 yards, while the depth in the midst of the channel, at least as far as I had an opportunity of judging from the poles of our boatmen, measured fourteen feet and a half, and at times even as much as eighteen, and probably more. The banks were enlivened by men and horses, and we passed an encampment of herdsmen with their cattle. The western shore especially was adorned with a profusion of dúm-palms, besides fine tamarind trees, sarkakáya, and others of unknown species. Thus repeatedly delayed by shifting sands obstructing the channel of the river, we moved on in a tolerably direct northerly course, till we reached the village of Menesengay, situated on sandy downs about twenty feet high, beyond a deep gulf of the westerly shore. The low grassy ground on the eastern side formed the place of resort for numbers of pelicans, and the lower ground emerging at present only three feet out of the water, was enlivened by numbers of water-birds, which were