TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 259 Many of the towns had suffered much in their walls and houses, which being wholly composed of clay, when once wet tumbled to the ground.

The view of Tuabo at that moment was peculiarly striking : it had all the appearance of a floating town, rendered the more picturesque by being beautifully shaded with dates, tamarind, and other large trees. The inhabitants were in the utmost consternation lest it should rise higher, in which case they would have been obhged to leave the town.

It is impossible to convey an accurate idea of the grandeur of the scene. The Senegal, which is there nearly half a mile wide, and then higher than remembered by the oldest inhabitant of the country, was hurrying along at the rate of four miles an hour, covered with small floating islands and trees, on both which were seen standing large aigretts, whose glaring white feathers, rendered doubly so by a brilliant sun, formed a pleasing contrast with the green reeds around them, or the brown trunks of trees whereon they stood.

The mountains on either side of the river, to whose bases the inundation reached, (forming an extensive sheet of water, on the surface of which appeared the tops of trees nearly covered,) were clothed with the most luxuriant verdure, and, s 2