In parts
there were ugly snags, and everywhere the turns were so puzzling,
that I marvelled how a human being could attempt the passage by
night. The best time for ascending is half-flood, for descending
half-ebb; if the water be too high, the bush chokes the way; if
too low, the craft grounds. At the Gaboon mouth the tide rises
three feet; at the head of the Mbata Creek, where it arrests the
sweet water rivulet, it is, of course, higher.
And now the scene improved. The hat-palm, a brab or wild date,
the spine-palm (Phoenix spinosa), and the Okumeh or cotton-tree
disputed the ground with the foul Rhizophora. Then clearings
appeared. At Ejene, the second of two landing-places evidently
leading to farms, we transferred ourselves to canoes, our boat
being arrested by a fallen tree. Advancing a few yards, all
disembarked upon trampled mud, and, ascending the bank, left the
creek which supplies baths and drinking water to our destination.
Striking a fair pathway, we passed westward over a low wave of
ground, sandy and mouldy, and traversed a fern field surrounded
by a forest of secular trees; some parasite-grown from twig to
root, others blanched and scathed by the fires of heaven; these
roped and corded with runners and llianas, those naked and
clothed in motley patches.
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