3oG ANNUAL OP SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT. 



between, the ranges inci-easing in altitude towards the interior, 

 and the pas^Ji-s over tlicm ranuiui^ between 1,8G4 and 2,400 feet. 

 Tlie "greater part of tlie eountry is eovered witli dense forest, 

 throni^h wliich are narrow jjaths leadinj^ from village to village ; 

 but from the Ashira country eastward there are tiu'ee main lines 

 of path, — one to the north-east, another to the east, and the tliird 

 to llie south-east. The tribes are diviilecl into elans, and eacli vil- 

 lage has its own chief, the inhal)ilants always belonging to the elan 

 of the mother. The villages are more populous and larger than 

 those near the coast. In reading the works of (Jrant, Speke, and 

 Burton, he observed many words wliicii were identical willi, or 

 which closely resembled, words used in the district he hail trav- 

 ersed, and he had no doubt that the tribes of Western and Eastern 

 Africa hail formed originally one people. 



From tlie accidental killing of two of the nalives.ho was obliged 

 to abandon liis journey, losing a great part of his valuable collec- 

 tions and scientifle observations. 



At tlie meeting of the British Association, in ISCfi, IMr. Du Chaillu 

 made a connnunication on tiie i>hysical geography of this region, 

 from which the following are extracts: — 



" There can l^e now no question that Equatorial Africa, from the 

 "West Coast, forms a belt of impenetrable jungle as far as I have 

 been, to 10° 31/ east longitude. This jungle did not stop there, but 

 could be seen as far as my eyes could reach, and the natives had 

 never heard where it ended. The breadth of this gigantic forest 

 extends north and south of the equator, probably from two or three 

 degrees on each side. Now and then prairies, looking like islands, 

 are found in the midst of this dark sea of everlasting foliage, and 

 how grateful my eyes met them no one can conceive unless he has 

 lived in such a solitude. At a certain distance from the coast, the 

 mountainous region beyond rises almost parallel with it. This 

 range of mountains seems to gird almost all the West Coast. Be- 

 tween these mountains and the sea, the country I have explored is 

 low and marsliy, and numerous rivers and streams are found. The 

 low land is alluvial, and has no doubt been formeil in tlie course 

 of time by the washing of a deposit cpming from the table-land. 

 Only two rivers seem to pierce through tiiese mountains. These 

 are the llembo Okanda and the lleml)0 Ngou3ai, tiie one coming 

 from a north-east direction, the other from the south-east. These 

 two rivers unite and form the Agoijia, which discharges itself into 

 the sea, forming the delta which I have described in my book on 

 ' Equatorial Africa,' and for which I had proposed the name of 

 the Delta of the Agobia. Lieut. Labigot, of the French navy, 

 and M. Touchard, have visited in a steamer the junction of the 

 Okanda and Ngouyai. How far eastward this immense belt of 

 woody couutr}' extends, further exploration alone can show. In 

 this great woody wilderness man is scattered and divided into a 

 great number of tribes. I was struck by the absence of those spe- 

 cies of animals which are found in almost eveiy other part of Af- 

 rica, and I wondered not at it, for the country was unlike those 

 parts which had been explored before. I found neither lion, i"hi- 

 noceros, zebra, giraffe, nor ostrich. The gi'eat number of species 



