than this grass, particularly in the neighborhood of large cities. Every year, after the harmattan winds, the natives set fire to it, causing an immense conflagration, sweeping over the country like a tornado.
From the mission-house at Ijaye, southward over an elevated country without the gate, we have seen a line of fire fully a mile long, driven by the wind so furiously as to entirely clear a space of ten or fifteen square miles in less than two hours, and still progressing out of sight, making a terrible noise. As it burns, thousands of birds and other small animals are driven out, and are immediately seized by hawks, which during the dry season are very abundant. It is from these fires, doubtless, that there is so little forest land and so few wild beasts, serpents, etc., in this country. During the whole time we were in Africa we saw only three living serpents, one about the neck of the man near the market at Oyo, one at Abbeokuta, and a small, but they say a very venomous one, on the road towards Isehin, where I also saw a few fine deer, which are always expert enough to get out of the way of these fires. We also saw a fawn bounding at full speed over the plain near Ilorin. The fire which so beautifully illumined the darkness as we entered the city was of the kind above referred to.
We met at the gate quite a concourse of persons,
