I shall have more to say about it when
describing my descent. Two miles further north brought us to the beginning
of the rapids, which apparently end the boat-navigation. The only canoes
are used for ferrying; I saw no water-traffic, and there were no longer
any fish-weirs. Moreover, the country has been deserted, I was told, since
the arrival of strangers. The natives have probably been treated with
little consideration. A quarter of an hour's hauling, all hands being
applied to the canoe, took us about fifty yards over the Impayim rapid,
whose fall is from four to five feet deep. Immediately after the Butabue
influent on the right bank the bed bends abruptly east, and we reached the
far-famed rapids of that name. Here the whole surface, as far up as the
eye can see, is a mass of rocks and of broken, surging water. The
vegetation of the banks, bound together by creepers, llianas, and rattans,
is peculiarly fine. I landed upon one of the rocks, sketched the Butabue,
whose name none could explain, and returned down stream to the 'great
central Depot,' Tumento.
I can say little about the River Ancobra above the rapids, except that it
resumes its course from the north-north-east and the north, apparently
guided by the hills.
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