At the Abonsa _embouchure_ Mr. Wyatt's map, copied from M. Dahse, shows an
island backed by a ridge running nearly east-west. I found no river-holm,
and only a small broadening of the Ancobra to about double its usual
breadth. The banks at the sharp angle of junction are, however, low; and,
perhaps, my predecessor saw them when flooded. The Mankuma Hill, on the
right bank, belonging to the Franco-English Company, is somewhat taller
than its neighbours: as usual in this silted-up archipelago, it trends
from the north-east to the south-west.
I had already shot the Ancobra River when paddling up, and was not over
lucky when coming down. The big kingfisher did not put in an appearance,
and the sun-birds equally failed me: the smallest item of my collection
measures two and a quarter inches, and is robed in blue, crimson, and
sulphur. I was fortunate enough to bring home four specimens of a rare
spur-plover (_Lobivanellus albiceps_): they are now in Mr. Sharp's
department of the British Museum. I killed a few little snakes and one
large green tree-snake; two crocodiles, both lost in the river, and an
iguana, which found its way into the spirit-cask. A tzetze-fly (_Glossina
morsitans_) was captured in Effuenta House, curiously deserting its usual
habit of jungle-life in preference to a home on clear ground: its
dagger-like proboscis, in the grooved sheath with a ganglion of muscles at
the base, assimilated it to the dreaded and ferocious cattle-scourge which
extends from Zanzibar to the Tanganyika Lake and from Kilwa (Quiloa) to
the Transvaal.
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