Page:Small-boat sailing; an explanation of the management of small yachts, half-decked and open sailing-boats of various rigs; sailing on sea and on river; cruising, etc (IA smallboatsailing01knig).pdf/304



beyond the narrow belts of cultivation. We drifted between palm-groves, pastures, and fields of tall maize, past many villages and groaning water-*wheels, and it was difficult for us to realise that the fair shore was but a thin mask in front of the world's most hopeless and hideous wildernesses. Now we were winding through archipelagoes of verdant islands, and now descending long reaches two miles in breadth, where our vessel tossed on the muddy waves raised by the conflicting wind and tide. We skirted the fertile island of Argo, which is twenty-five miles in length. We landed