From Kurussa the Niger is navigable at high water all the way to Bamako in Upper Senegal, whence there is communication by rail and river with St Louis and Timbuktu.
Seven or eight miles below Bamako the Sotuba rocks mark the end of what may be considered the upper river.
He descended the river some distance, and on his return journey went up stream as far as Bamako.
From 1904 onwards the French undertook works on the Niger between Bamako - whence there is railway communication with the Senegal - and Ansongo with a view to deepening the channel and removing obstructions to navigation.
Its principal affluent, the Baule (Red river), and its headstreams rise farther east on the northern slopes of the hills which above Bamako shut in the Niger.
