Many of these channels, covered with a thick
growth of herbage, resembled luxuriant meadow-lands.
There the doctor recognized the route followed by the
explorer Barth when he launched upon the river to descend
to Timbuctoo. Eight hundred fathoms broad at this point,
the Niger flowed between banks richly grown with cruciferous
plants and tamarind-trees. Herds of agile gazelles were seen
skipping about, their curling horns mingling with the tall
herbage, within which the alligator, half concealed, lay
silently in wait for them with watchful eyes.
Long files of camels and asses laden with merchandise
from Jenne were winding in under the noble trees. Ere
long, an amphitheatre of low-built houses was discovered
at a turn of the river, their roofs and terraces heaped up
with hay and straw gathered from the neighboring districts.
"There's Kabra!" exclaimed the doctor, joyously;
"there is the harbor of Timbuctoo, and the city is not
five miles from here!"
"Then, sir, you are satisfied?" half queried Joe.
"Delighted, my boy!"
"Very good; then every thing's for the best!"
In fact, about two o'clock, the Queen of the Desert,
mysterious Timbuctoo, which once, like Athens and Rome,
had her schools of learned men, and her professorships
of philosophy, stretched away before the gaze of our
travellers.
Pages:
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390