Here we awoke the next morning with a beautiful clear sky, and quietly enjoyed for a few hours the fine river scenery, bordered by a rich belt of vegetation, while our boatmen endeavoured to replace one of their poles, which they had broken, by a new one, and after some time succeeded in getting one which measured twenty-one feet. The town or village itself is inhabited by Songhay and Fúlbe, the latter being in possession of numerous flocks and herds. The cattle being just collected on the sandy beach near the river, were milked soon after sunrise, and furnished me with a draught of that delicious beverage, which must always constitute one of the greatest luxuries to a European traveller in these countries. The chief part of the village extended along the bay to the south, at the point where we had moored our boat; but there was a suburb of detached huts, chiefly inhabited by Tawárek, and this part of the shore was beautifully adorned with large trees. When we at length continued our voyage, we observed also a great many dúm-palms, which served to further embellish the country, while kadéña, or tóso, seemed to form the staple produce of the inhabitants, and thickly lined the shores. The scenery was the more interesting, as, besides boys who were playing in the water, a numerous herd of cattle were just swimming across the river, which to animals not accustomed to such a task, would have been rather a difficult undertaking; and, even as it was, the people who accompanied them in boats had some difficulty in inducing them to continue their fatiguing trip when they once began to feel exhausted, especially as they were accompanied by their young calves. However, in these regions along the Niger, with its numerous channels, backwaters, and swamps, man as well as beast must be accustomed to swimming. I took great pains to discover whether there was any current here, but I did not succeed in ascertaining the fact; and altogether, in this network of creeks and backwaters, the current seems to be very uncertain, going in on one side and out on the other, notwithstanding that we were now approaching the trunk of the river, following in general a northerly direction with a slight westerly deviation. The gradually sloping bank was here covered with the dense rich bush called bógina by the Songhay.