Page:Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Volume 1 (2nd edition).djvu/209

Rh season,) it was not more than a stone's throw across. The rock on which I sat overlooks the spot where Mr. Park and his associates met their unhappy fate.'

The king afterwards exhibited to the travellers one of Mr. Park's books, which is described as a nautical book containing tables of logarithms.

On the 23d of June they set out from Boossá, for Yáoori. Only one of the branches of the river which meet at Boossà flows by Kagogie, a small village about six miles north of Boossà, yet this of itself is a mile in width; but large sand-banks are in the centre of the stream, and it is so shallow that, except in one very narrow place, a child might wade across it without difficulty.

'June 26.—We had passed the island whereon we had slept last night but a few minutes, and had just entered the main river, when we came to a spot where it spreads again, and each channel was full of dangerous rocks, sand-banks, and low islands covered with tall rank grass. We were conducted up the main channel; but were soon obliged to get out of the canoe to lighten her. During the greater part of the forenoon our canoe was continually striking against concealed rocks, or running on sandbanks, which obliged us to be constantly getting out and in.

'On the 27th of June we arrived at Yáoori. With the exception of the dangerous rocks opposite Boossà, we were informed that, during our four days' passage thence, we had passed almost all the difficult places in the river, there being, as is said, neither rocks nor sand-banks either above Yáoori or below Boossà. We have said nothing of the direction of the river, because it is pretty well understood that this city lies nearly due north of Boossà; and also, that notwithstanding its windings, and the number and variety of its channels among the islands, the Quorra flows past Boossà in a single undivided channel. In its natural bed, when uninterrupted by rocks, the river appears to run at this time of the year (June) between one and two miles an hour: whenever it is obstructed by them., the current is, of course, considerably greater.

'Although, during the dry season, no communication is maintained by water between Boossà and the countries lower down the river, by reason of the dangerous rocks which have been already alluded to, yet, in the wet season, after the "malca" (or fourteen days' incessant rain) has set in, when all the rivers which are dry during the remainder of the year pour their overflowing contents into the "Great Father of Waters," as the Quorra is emphatically styled, these canoes, we were told, pass to and fro between Yáoori, Nyffe, Boossà, and Funda. It is immediately after the malca, also, that the river, by the depth and velocity of its current, sweeps off the rank grass which springs up annually