156 THE EXPLORATION OF THE NIGER barring the passage. In the narrow opening, which is all that is left, the current is probably very strong when the water is low, but just now, when the river was at its highest, it was perfectly calm, and only moved very slowly round, its surface flecked with foam in the restricted space in which it is confined, the width of that space varying from 390 to 490 feet. On either side rise red and black cliffs, which look as if they had been calcined, cut across here and there with veins of white quartz, giving to the scene a grand though somewhat melancholy character. Barth relates that according to the natives the skin of a young bull cut into strips and joined together would not be long enough to reach the bottom of the river at this spot. Business of a very different kind prevented us from verifying this belief.

Presently, exactly at the place specified by Barth as the narrowest part of the gorge, a group of horsemen detached themselves from the Tademeket, and one of them advanced towards the edge of the cliff holding up a letter for us to see.

Already the evening before we had talked over what it would be best to do under certain circumstances should they arise. I now had the Davoust steered close to the cliff so as to be able to receive the letter from the Tuareg, but the Dantec and the Aube remained, one on the right the other on the left, ready to rake the banks with a crossfire if any hidden ambush should be discovered.

I took the letter, and Father Hacquart read it at once.

It was a regular declaration of war, couched in very suitable language ; diplomatists could have found no fault with it.

Yunes, chief of the Tademeket, saluted me a thousand times and wished me all prosperity. It would afford him the greatest pleasure to let us pass down the river and even