formation was shown by the normal savannah and jungle-strips. About noon
we were ferried over the eastern arm of the Ebumesu, known as the Pápá. I
have noted scanty belief in the bar of the Ebumesu proper, the western
feature. The eastern entrance, however, perhaps can be used between the
end of December and March, and in calm weather would offer little
difficulty to the surfboats transhipping machinery from the steamers.

Beginning a little east of the Esyámo village, the Pápá lagoon subtends
the coast. We shot over it in the evening, and at night found quarters at
the Ezrimenu village marked Ebu-mesu in old maps.

This return march of two hours or so had been a mere abomination. The
path, which had not been cleared, led through a tangle of foul and fetid
thicket, upon which the sun darted a sickly, malignant beam. Creepers and
llianas, some of which are spiny and poisonous, barred the thread of path,
which could not be used for hammocks. The several stream-beds, about to
prove so precious, run chocolate-tinted water over vegetable mire, rich,
when stirred, in sulphuretted hydrogen. The only bridges are fallen
trunks. Amongst the minor pests are the _nkran_, or 'driver,' the _ahoho_,
a highly-savoured red ant, and the _hahinni_, a large black formica
terribly graveolent; flies like the tzetze, centipedes, scorpions, and
venomous spiders, which make men 'writhe like cut worms.' There was a
weary uniformity in the closed view, and the sole breaks were an
occasional plantation or a few pauper huts, with auriferous swish, buried
in that eternal green.

God made the country and man made the town,

sang the silly sage, who evidently had never seen a region untouched by
the human hand. Finally, this 'Fía route' will probably become the main