554 SCIENTIFIC RECORD FOR 1885. 



news from the doctor's present African exploring expedition, which had 

 passed through Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, and gone on to the 

 Cameroons, the ultimate object being to explore the watershed between 

 the Nile and Congo from the west. 



M. Leon Guiral has sent to the Geographical Society at Paris a de- 

 scription of the west coast of Africa, about the mouths of the San Benito 

 or Ey o and the Dote, 7i miles farther south. The Eyo is a mile in width 

 at its mouth. Banks of rocks bar the entrance, but the left arm is 

 navigable for vessels drawing two meters of water. The banks are 

 marshy. M. Guiral ascended it about 30 kilometers to Iniger, where 

 there are fails. It has several tributaries, some of them navigable for ' 

 canoes. The Dote is a river of little importance, with marshy banks, 

 and is about a meter deep and 40 meters wide along the lower part of its 

 course. It can be ascended in a canoe for about 21 miles. The com- 

 merce of the district concentrates in the village on the right bank from 

 which it takes its name. (See Proceedings of Eoyal Geographical So- 

 ciety, December, 1885.) 



In the Proceedings of the Eoyal Geographical Society for February, 

 1885, is a long and learned article upon "European Territorial Claims 

 on the Coast of the Eed Sea and its Southern Approaches," by Sir E. 

 W. Eawson, than whom, perhaps, no one is better fitted to discuss this 

 subject, which is of great historical as well as geographical importance. 



Mr. E. H. Eichards, an American missionary, has journeyed from lu- 

 hambane to the Limpopo, through a region which is at present a blank 

 on our maps. The Bombom Eiver forms the western boundary of the 

 Portuguese province, and drains a large area of western Inhambane, as 

 well as the eastern slope of the Makwakwa Eidge to the west. The 

 country west of this ridge is semi-deserted, in consequence of the raids 

 of Umzila's soldiers. From the Makwakwa Eidge to the Limpopo is 

 level land. The Ama-gwaza, or people of Umzila, inhabit or control the 

 country from the Zambesi to the Limpopo, and with the exception of 

 the Portuguese possessions of Chiluan and Inhambane, from the sea in 

 the east to the Matabele country on the west. In a second journey Mr. 

 Eichards, besides visiting a large and hitherto untravelled area, was 

 successful in reaching Baleni. He' left Delagoa Bay on foot, attended 

 only by a Zulu convert and three porters. The Komati Eiver, 200 yards 

 wide, 30 feet deep, was crossed in a " dugout" canoe, and its course fol- 

 lowed for several days ; the river was then left and a series of thirteen 

 lakes passed. Though there was no connecting stream at that season, 

 the natives call this string of lakes the Liputa Eiver, but there are often 

 hills and bushy districts between the lakes. Emerging from the bush 

 close to the Limpopo Eiver, they found themselves at Baleni. Herds 

 of cattle were visible in every direction and clusters of small huts were 

 very numerous. Manjobo or Manjova, the ruling chief, has several 

 kraals on the west and one on the east side of the river, which here runs 

 through a low flat plain of indurated alluvium as hard as marble. The 



