2 PROCEEDINGS OP THE ACADEMY OP 



of the Fernando Vaz, the Bakalai tribes disappear ; then follow a people calling 

 themselves Ashira, and next to them come the Apindgi. 



"Up the Oveuga, I left it and went into the interior amidst the Bakalai people 

 and afterwards into the Ashira country. The Ashiras are quite a different peo- 

 ple from any that I have yet seen in Western Africa. They cultivate tobacco 

 extensively, and cotton to some extent also, but the principal cloth made by 

 them is from a kind of grass which is very fine. Food with this people is 

 abundant, and they are the only people I have yet seen in this country that had 

 domesticated hogs. 



" Immense forests, in which the ebony tree is very abundant, border the 

 banks of the Fernando Vaz, but at the highest point that I reached, the coun- 

 try was more open, and grassy plains frequently presented themselves. I was 

 assured by the natives that this was the character of the country still higher up 

 the river and its branches, and they speak of a large prairie and of a large lake 

 also further in the interior. The latter, as far as I can judge from the accounts 

 of the natives, is about 600 miles from the coast. At present my intention is 

 to make another journey about in the latitude of the Fernando Vaz in search of 

 this lake, which I have some hopes may prove to be the source of the Congo. 

 In this journey I may perhaps also ascertain the course of the mountains 

 that I reached in ascending the Muni river. 



I have made maps of all the rivers that I have ascended, and have, with much 

 difficulty, kept my journal without intermission, and hope to lay it before the 

 Academy on my return to the United States. I send by this vessel four boxes 

 and three barrels containing collections of quadrupeds and birds, in which are 

 many interesting specimens, and some that I have never collected before. All 

 are from the Fernando Vaz or Camma, the Ogobai, Rembo and Ovenga rivers." 



Dr. Leidy exhibited a drawing of the worm described by him at a 

 former meeting as Manayunkia speciosa. 



Dr. Leidy remarked, that perhaps some of the members present would recol- 

 lect he had some time since, (Proc. 1858, p. 90,) described a curious fresh 

 water worm, Manayunkia speciosa, from the river Schuylkill. It was observed 

 that it appeared to be most nearly allied to the marine genus Fabricia. During 

 the last summer, Dr. L. in company with Mr. Powel sought for the latter at 

 Newport, R. I. They found it in very great abundance at the foot of the cliffs 

 bathed by the ocean. In its curved tubes of tenacious mud, adhering to stones, 

 and with ito projecting tentacles, it very much resembles a ciliated polype, es- 

 pecially Plumatella. 



The worm is about U lines long, demi-cylindroid, with 12 annuli, of which 

 all except the first are setigerous. The cephalic annulus has a short proboscis ; 

 is provided with one or two pairs of eyes, and supports six arms with about 

 80 ciliated tentacles. The succeeding 7 or 8 annuli are provided on each side 

 with fascicles of from 5 to 7 setae and as many podal spines. The posterior 

 three annuli are provided on each side with fascicles of 2 setae and from 12 to 

 15 short podal spines. Anterior setae terminating in a linear lanceolate 

 blade ; posterior setae aristate. Anterior spines terminating in a hook which 

 is dentate on its convex border; posterior spines expanded at the extremity, 

 which is dentated on the convex border. Caudal annulus with a pair of eyes. 



Eyes exist in the cephalic and caudal annuli, also in the young worm. From 

 the "want of a good description and figures of the European species of Fabricia., 

 it was not to be determined whether the American species was different from it. 



January Y&tli. 

 President Lea in the Chair. 

 Forty-one members present. 



The following papers were presented for publication in the Proceedings. 



[Jan. 



