SIERRA LEONE is the name of a cape on the west coast of Africa, in 8° 30' N. lat., of a river or 'estuary which enters the ocean on the north side of the cape, and of a British colony established on a penin sula of which the cape forms the north-western extremity. The name has been extended to a large district, called the coast of Sierra Leone. This region comprehends those parts of Western Africa which are watered by the rivera that fall into the Atlantic between Cape Verga, in 10° 12' N. lat., and Sherboro Island, in 7° 30' N. lat. It is bounded N. by the part of Senegambia subject to the king of Poeta Jallon ; E. by Sangara, a part of Sudan ; S. by the Grain Coast; and W. by the Atlantic. Its area is estimated at 25,000 square miles.
Coastdiee.—From Cape Veep the coast runs south-east to Alligator Point, and is low and flat, and covered with mangroves. It is divided into numerous islands by the several arms of the river Pongas and by the Dembia River, which reaches the sea a few miles N. from Alligator Point. That headland is the termination of the Soomba range, which rises in the interior to an elevation of 1705 feet Beyond Alligator Point the Sangara River, of which the Dembia is a branch, opens into a deep bay, lined with a succession of shoals and reefs. The south shore of the bay terminates in Tumbo Point, a long rocky flat. Here the land rises gradually into a mountainous tract, of which the highest peak yet measured is Mount Kakulimah, 2910 feet above the sea-level. Within 6 miles from the shore at Tumbo Point, and 75 miles from Cape Varga, lie the Isles de Loss, or Ihlaa doe Idoloa, a group of low islands and reefs inclosing a safe and convenient anchorage. These island. have a considerable native population. They possess a valu able fishery, and abound with the silk-cotton tree, and still more with the palm-tree, from which a large quantity of oil and wine is pro duced. The three principal islands are Crawford Island, which contains a British settlement, Factory Island, and Tamara, or Footabar.
From Tumbo Point the coast continues low and flat, and extends about 70 miles nearly due south to the peninsula of Sierra Leone. It is broken by the arms of several rivers into many clusters of islands, and the banks of the streams are clothed with mangroves. About midway the wooded island of Matacong lies near a headland, on the Bluth side of which the river Fouriearia forma an 'estuary two miles wide, with a sand-bank across the channel. The :estuary of the Sierra Leone River, from the Ws of Leopards on the north to Cape Sierra Leone on the south, has a width of 10 miles. The northern or I:ullom shore is much depressed and marshy, and runs in a straight line to Tagrim Point, opposite Freetown. The southern shore is rocky, and between Freetown and the Cape is indented by several small bays, of which the most important is the Bay of Francis or St. George, where a number of streams from the adjacent heights combine to form the finest watering-place for ship. on the coast From Cape Sierra Leone, where a lighthouse has been lately erected, southward by False Cape to Cape Shilling, the west coast of the peninsula is rocky. The beach is beaten by a heavy surf, which can only be passed by canoe., and sometimes not even by them. Two
islands, the Great and Little Bananas, lie near Cape Shilling, and resemble the coast in elevation and They are almost continuous, and extend six miles in length and about a mile in breadth. The Great Banana contains many wild cattle. On these islands there are two villages, called Dublin and Ricketts.
Surface, Soil, and Produce.—From Cape Varga inland a tract of high land, much broken by ravines and narrow valleys, and nowhere more than 1000 feet above the sea-level, extends north by east, and then east, to the table land of Foots Jallon, near 11' W. long. Imme diately within this northern boundary the country is still very little known. In general it is mountainous. From 9' W. long. a gently undulating tract spreads westward for 80 or 90 miles, with a general elevation of 300 feet above the sea. Extensive vales and fertile meadows, belted with stripe of wood, and decorated with clumps of trees of the densest foliage, are occasionally diversified by hills, or broken by deep ravines, and furrowed by numerous rivulets, sunk far below the surface. The soil of the valleys a rich vegetable mould mixed with lroreclay and sand, requiring little labour, and very pro ductive. Some of the lower depressions become swamps during the rainy season. Rice and ground-nuts are the principal crops ; maize, yams, and mandioc are extensively grown. Cattle and sheep are numerous. Horses are imported from Sangars, which lies farther east. This level country is bounded on the west by a mountain range running 60 miles from north to south between 11' and 12' W. long. The range is broken In several places by rivers flowing westward through spacious valleys. Sa Wo116, near II' W. long., 9° N. lat., is 1900 feet high, and Bombs town stands on a mountain 1900 feet above the sea. The hills, in a few places bare from their steepness, are generally belted round the base with eamwood-trees, and on the higher parts dotted to the summits with palm-trees and clothed with grass, which continues green throughout the year. Between the fields are frequent clusters of palm-trees. The pine-apple is the prevailing fruit- Cattle and goats and other domestic animals are numerous. Between this hilly country sod the sea lies the main part of the coast of Sierra Leone, forming a plain of about 100 miles in breadth, varied in some by rocky tracts traversed by deep ravines, and in others by depressions, which ere converted by the rains into extensive swamps, and in the dry season are covered with grass nine or ten feet high. The country is fertile, but only partially cultivated. White or Carolina rice grows in great perfection ; red rice, which keeps longer, is raised more extensively by the natives for their own consumption. Goats are common, but cattle and sheep are rare, and horses are not reared. Over all the interior, as well as in the colony, poultry i.e abundant, but of a diminutive kind. Guinea-fowls are plentiful, and much larger than those in England. Wild bees are very numerous. Fish abound ou the coast and in all the rivers. The wild animals are the elephant, buffalo, various species of antelopes, monkeys, of which the chimpan zee is the moat remarkable, leopards, and wolves.