Half a
mile from the town we found canoes awaiting us, and in these we were poled
along for over half an hour over what in the dry season is a native path,
but now a narrow channel of water winding about in a dense jungle of
reeds. Here and there we came upon small hillocks covered with trees, in
which numerous monkeys sported about. Emerging from these reeds, one broad
sheet of water presented itself to the eye, encircled by a low shore
fringed with canes, bush, and palm-trees, and at its western extremity a
range of hills rose out of the background. The lagoon receives several
small streams, and empties itself into the sea by the Ebumesu river, its
mouth being about half-way between Bein and the Ancobra. According to the
natives the river used to be navigable to its mouth, but of late years has
become overgrown with reeds. A few years back they set to work to cut a
channel through them, but getting tired of the work gave it up. The length
of the lagoon appears to be about three to four miles, and about one to
one and a half in breadth. Its major axis runs parallel to the coastline,
or nearly due east and west. Twenty minutes' paddling brought us round the
point of a small headland, where we came in sight of a pretty lake-village
built upon piles, at some little distance from the shore, the whole
forming a most picturesque and animated scene.
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