This Ridge Of Rock
Runs Two-Thirds Across The Ogowe, Leaving A Narrow Deep Channel By
The North Bank.
When we had got our canoe over the ridge, mostly by
standing in the water and lifting her, we found the water deep and
fairly quiet.
On the north bank we passed by the entrance of the Okana River. Its
mouth is narrow, but, the natives told me, always deep, even in the
height of the dry season. It is a very considerable river, running
inland to the E.N.E. Little is known about it, save that it is
narrowed into a ravine course above which it expands again; the
banks of it are thickly populated by Fans, who send down a
considerable trade, and have an evil reputation. In the main stream
of the Ogowe below the Okana's entrance, is a long rocky island
called Shandi. When we were getting over our ridge and paddling
about the Okana's entrance my ears recognised a new sound. The rush
and roar of the Ogowe we knew well enough, and could locate which
particular obstacle to his headlong course was making him say
things; it was either those immovable rocks, which threw him back in
foam, whirling wildly, or it was that fringe of gaunt skeleton trees
hanging from the bank playing a "pull devil, pull baker" contest
that made him hiss with vexation. But this was an elemental roar.
I said to M'bo: "That's a thunderstorm away among the mountains."
"No, sir," says he, "that's the Alemba."
We paddled on towards it, hugging the right-hand bank again to avoid
the mid-river rocks. For a brief space the mountain wall ceased,
and a lovely scene opened before us; we seemed to be looking into
the heart of the chain of the Sierra del Cristal, the abruptly
shaped mountains encircling a narrow plain or valley before us, each
one of them steep in slope, every one of them forest-clad; one,
whose name I know not unless it be what is sometimes put down as Mt.
Okana on the French maps, had a conical shape which contrasted
beautifully with the more irregular curves of its companions. The
colour down this gap was superb, and very Japanese in the evening
glow. The more distant peaks were soft gray-blues and purples,
those nearer, indigo and black. We soon passed this lovely scene
and entered the walled-in channel, creeping up what seemed an
interminable hill of black water, then through some whirlpools and a
rocky channel to the sand and rock shore of our desired island Kondo
Kondo, along whose northern side tore in thunder the Alemba. We
made our canoe fast in a little cove among the rocks, and landed,
pretty stiff and tired and considerably damp. This island, when we
were on it, must have been about half a mile or so long, but during
the long wet season a good deal of it is covered, and only the
higher parts - great heaps of stone, among which grows a long
branched willow-like shrub - are above or nearly above water.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 89 of 371
Words from 46259 to 46778
of 194943
