This Road Is Quite The Most
Magnificent Of Roads, As Regards Breadth And General Intention, That
I Have Seen Anywhere In West Africa, And It Runs Through A Superbly
Beautiful Country.
It is, I should say, as broad as Oxford Street;
on either side of it are deep drains to
Carry off the surface
waters, with banks of varied beautiful tropical shrubs and ferns,
behind which rise, 100 to 200 feet high, walls of grand forest, the
column-like tree-stems either hung with flowering, climbing plants
and ferns, or showing soft red and soft grey shafts sixty to seventy
feet high without an interrupting branch. Behind this again rise
the lovely foot hills of Mungo, high up against the sky, coloured
the most perfect soft dark blue.
The whole scheme of colour is indescribably rich and full in tone.
The very earth is a velvety red brown, and the butterflies - which
abound - show themselves off in the sunlight, in their canary-
coloured, crimson, and peacock-blue liveries, to perfection. After
five minutes' experience of the road I envy those butterflies. I do
not believe there is a more lovely road in this world, and besides,
it's a noble and enterprising thing of a Government to go and make
it, considering the climate and the country; but to get any genuine
pleasure out of it, it is requisite to hover in a bird- or
butterfly-like way, for of all the truly awful things to walk on,
that road, when I was on it, was the worst.
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