Timbuctoo Is Situated On A Level Plain [*], Having A River About Two Hundred Yards From The Town, On The South-East Side, Named La Mar Zarah.

The town appeared to Adams to cover as much ground as Lisbon. He was unable to give any account of number of its inhabitants, estimated by Caillie to amount to 10,000 or 12,000.

The houses are not built in streets, nor with any regularity, its population therefore, compared with that of European towns, is by no means in proportion to its size. It has no wall nor any thing resembling fortification. The houses are square, built of sticks, clay, and grass, with flat roofs of the same materials. The rooms are all on the ground-floor, and are without any of furniture, except earthen jars, wooden bowls, and mats made grass, upon which the people sleep. He did not observe a houses, or any other buildings, constructed of stone. The palace of the king he described as having walls of clay, or clay and sand, rammed into a wooden case or frame, and placed in layers, one above another, until they attained the height required, the roof being composed of poles or rafters laid horizontally, and covered with a cement or plaster, made of clay or sand.

[Footnote: This account of Timbuctoo, as given by Adams, by no means corresponds with that which was subsequently given by Caillie. The latter makes it situated on a very elevated site, in the vicinity of mountains; in fact the whole account of that celebrated city, as given by Caillie, is very defective.]

The river La Mar Zarah is about three quarters of a mile wide at Timbuctoo, and appeared in this place to have but little current, flowing to the south-west.

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