Close to this town I observed the first rími, or silk-cotton tree, which in Bórnu Proper is entirely wanting; and as we proceeded through the fine open country, numerous species of trees which are peculiar to Háusa became visible, and seemed to greet me as old acquaintances. I was heartily glad that I had left the monotonous plains of Bórnu once more behind me, and had reached the more favoured and diversified districts of this fine country. Small channels intersected the country in every direction; and immense fishing-baskets were lying in some of them, apparently in order to catch the fish which, during the period of the inundation, are carried down by the river. But the great humidity of this district made it swarm with ants, whose immense and thickly- scattered hills, together with the dúm bush, filled out the intermediate spaces between the larger specimens of the vegetable kingdom. Having then crossed a tract of denser forest, we entered upon deep sandy soil, where the kúka became the sole tree, excluding almost every other kind, with the exception of a few tamarinds, for whose company, as I have observed, the monkey-bread tree seems to have a decided predilection. Thus we reached Donári, formerly a considerable place of the Manga, and surrounded with a low rampart of earth, but at present greatly reduced, the inhabited quarter occupying only a very small proportion of the area thus inclosed. But a good many cattle were to be seen, and, lying just in the shade of the majestic monkey-bread trees which mark the place, afforded a cheerful sight. This was the residence of the Bórnu officer Ádama, who had accompanied me from Borzári, and who the previous day had gone on in advance to pass the night here. But having once made it a rule to encamp in the open country, I preferred the large though leafless trunk of a kúka at a short distance from the eastern gate, to a cool shed inside the town; and the heat was by no means oppressive, a cool wind blowing the whole day. [Sidenote: December 10th.] We exchanged the domain of the monkey-bread tree for that of the dúm palm, by giving to our course a north-westerly direction towards Zurríkulo, the queen of the region of dúm palms and the residence of the hospitable Kashélla Sʿaíd[19], passing at some distance on our way a comfortable and populous little place, surrounded with a stockade, and bearing the attractive name of Kechí-dúniyá, “the sweetness of the world,” where a little market was held, to which people were flocking from all sides, male and female, with sour milk, ground-nuts, grain, earthen pots, young cattle, and sheep. In Zurríkulo I fell into my former route, which I had followed in the opposite direction in March 1851, and, crossing the northern branch of the komádugu, which at present was two feet and a half deep, and following almost the same road, encamped the next day in Shechéri, the first village of the district of Búndi.