ducat, by a coinage which is depreciated, has fallen to 3s. 6d.
sterling.]
8
SITUATION OF THE CITY OF TIMBUCTOO.

On the east side of the city of Timbuctoo, there is a large forest,
in which are a great many elephants. The timber here is very large.
The trees on the outside of the forest are remarkable for having
two different colours; that side which is exposed to the morning
sun is black, and the opposite side is yellow. The body of the tree
has neither branches nor leaves, but the leaves, which are
remarkably large, grow upon the top only: so that one of these
trees appears, at a distance, like the mast and round top of a
ship. Shabeeny has seen trees in England much taller than these:
within the forest the trees are smaller than on its skirts. There
are no trees resembling these in the Emperor of Marocco's
dominions. They are of such a size that the largest cannot be
girded by two men. They bear a kind of berry about the size of a
walnut, in clusters consisting of from ten to twenty berries.
Shabeeny cannot say what is the extent of this forest, but it is
very large. Close to the town of Timbuctoo, on the south, is a
small rivulet in which the inhabitants wash their clothes, and
which is about two feet deep. It runs in the great forest on the
east, and does not communicate with the Nile, but is lost in the
sands west of the town. Its water is brackish; that of the Nile is
9 good and pleasant. The town of Timbuctoo is surrounded by a
mud-wall: the walls are built tabia-wise[19] as in Barbary,
viz. they make large wooden cases, which they fill with mud, and
when that dries they remove the cases higher up till they have
finished the wall. They never use stone or brick; they do not know
how to make bricks. The wall is about twelve feet high, and
sufficiently strong to defend the town against the wild Arabs, who
come frequently to demand money from them. It has three gates; one
called Bab Sahara, or the gate of the desert, on the north:
opposite to this, on the other side of the town, a second, called
Bab Neel, or the gate of the Nile: the third gate leads to the
forest on the east, and is called Beb El Kibla.[20] The gates are
hung on very large hinges, and when shut at night, are locked, as
in Barbary; and are farther secured by