Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/378

 eastern empire. It occupies a singular position in a cavity encircled on all sides by escarpments, and watered by a small affluent of the Sokoto. This depression is surprisingly fertile, yielding an abundance of exquisite fruits and vegetables. The bananas and onions of Gando are famous throughout Haussa Land.

Birni n' Kebbi ("Fort Kebbi"), standing 30 miles west of Gando, on a terrace 280 feet above the broad and fertile Sokoto valley, occupied an admirable strategical

and commercial position near the head of the navigation, and at the terminus of the shortest route to Sai on the Niger. But this former capital of Kebbi was destroyed in 1806 by the Fulahs, and has since been replaced by a new town called simply Kebbi, built in the neighbourhood, and in a district exposed to the incessant feuds of the surrounding Haussa, Fulah, and Songhai populations.

Jega, on the Gulbi n' Gindi, a sub-aflluent of the Niger, appears to be at