Narrative of a voyage to Senegal in 1816 undertaken by order of the French Government comprising an account of the shipwreck of the Medusa ... To which are subjoined observations respecting the agriculture of the Western coast of Africa / by J.B. Henry Savigny and Alexander Corréard. Illustrated with the notes of M. Bredif.

Savigny, Jean Baptiste Henri, 1793-1843. Naufrage de la frigate la Méduse. English

Date:: 1818

Credit: Narrative of a voyage to Senegal in 1816 undertaken by order of the French Government comprising an account of the shipwreck of the Medusa ... To which are subjoined observations respecting the agriculture of the Western coast of Africa / by J.B. Henry Savigny and Alexander Corréard. Illustrated with the notes of M. Bredif. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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Considered geologically, the Island of Goree is a group of basaltic columns still standing, but a part of which seem to have exnerienced the action of the same cause of destruction and overthrow, as the columns of the same formation of Cape Verd, because they are inclined and overthrown in the same direction. Cape Verd is a peninsula about five leagues and à half long; the breadth is extremely variable. At its junc- tion, with the continent, it is about four leagues broad; by the deep recess which the Bay of Daccard forms, it is reduced, near that village, to 600 toises, and becomes broader afterwards. This promontory, which forms the most western part of Africa, is placed, as it were, at the foot of a long hill, which represents the ancient shore of the continent. On the sea-shore, and towards the north- east, there are two hills of unequal height, which serve as a guide to mariners; and which, from the substances col- lected in their neighbourhood, evidently shew that they are the remains of an ancient volcano. They have received the name of Mamelles. From this place, to the western extremity of the Peninsula, the country rises towards the north-east, and terminates in a sandy beach on the oppo- site side. Almost the whole north-side is composed of steep rocks, covered with large masses of oxyd of iron, or with regular columns of basalt which, for the most part, still preserve their vertical position. Their summits, which are sometimes scorified, seem to prove that they have been exposed toa great degree of heat. The soil which covers the plateau, formed by the summit of the Basaltic columns, the sides of which assume towards the Mamelles, the ap- pearance of walls of Trapp, but already, in a great degree, changed into tuf, is arid and covered with briars. The

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