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Climate of Liberia—Soil.
Climate.—I have said that uninterrupted summer prevails in the Tropics. In Liberia it is never so cold but the natives go naked, with the general exception of a piece of cotton cloth tied around the loins, or as I have known some mornings in July, in this country, nor so hot as are many whole days in every month of the summer here. The temperature is always about the same, and may be well expressed by the word comfortable. The changes are very slight, not half so great during the whole year as I have often known in one day of an American summer. One seldoms suffers from the heat, except a little about mid-day, and then, by no means to the same extent as in the summer in this country. Notwithstanding the uniform warm temperature, which warrants me in saying, continued summer prevails, yet the year is divided into two seasons, the wet and dry. From November to March there is very little rain, and the grass is, more or less, dried up, the leaves of the forest are not quite so green and fresh, and vegetation generally, is at a stand-still. The rest of the year corresponds with our summer; during which, there are plentiful rains, and it is, as with us, the season of planting, growing and harvest.
Face of the Country.—Throughout Liberia, immediately on the sea shore, the land is generally low, but very soon becomes elevated, rising in gentle undulations or swells, and nowhere, except on the borders of some rivers, inlets from the sea or lagoons, is the land low or marshy one mile from the sea beach—differing in this respect very much from the sea shore in Maryland and Virginia. From two to five miles, in a direct line from the sea, the land generally becomes hilly, and in fifteen or twenty miles, mountainous—such as you do not find in this State, except in the western counties. The whole country is well wooded and watered. Timber, not only such as you find in this country, excepting the varieties of the pine, but many other and more valuable kinds, fit for cabinet work, ship building, &c. The rivers are many, and some of them long, although none navigable over twenty miles, on account of fails and rapids. These are fed by innumerable small streams, brooks and springs. The water of all is sweet and good; no one ever suffers, even inconvenience, for want of good water in Liberia.
Soil—The quantity of timber generally indicates the richness and strength of the soil, and one only need to look at the immense forests, where trees from five to ten feet in diameter are common, and those of twenty feet are to be found, to know that, they can only spring from deep, rich soil. But, were the soil less rich, it could not fail to be productive where the climate is so mild and uniform.
Productions, Grains, Vegetables and Fruits.—As you are only acquainted with the productions of this climate, or the Temperate region of the earth, I cannot well give you a correct idea of the productions of the Tropics, as some of their principal articles of diet are unknown to you. It is enough, perhaps, to say, that they far surpass those to which you are accustomed, in richness and variety There are some, however, with which you are acquainted. Rice, a kind decidedly richer and
