556 SCIENTIFIC RECORD FOR 1885. 



last map joins the Congo west of Stanley Falls, cannot be the Lubilash, 

 and moreover must be of no great length. This discovery of Lieutenant 

 Wissmann, along with that of the Mobangi by Mr. Grenfell, greatlj^ in- 

 creases the navigable waterway of the Congo system. 



Besides much good detail work done by the Rev. G. Grenfell on the 

 Congo, he with Rev. T. J. Comber, has recently explored the Mobangi, 

 which enters the right bank of the Congo, forming a great delta, be- 

 tween 26' and 42' south latitude, nearly opposite Equator Station, and 

 is i^robably its greatest tributary. Mr. Grenfell ascended the Mobangi 

 on a mean course of north by east from the equator to 4P 30' north lati- 

 tude, and left it still an open waterway. At 4° 23' north, just below 

 the second rapids, he found it 673 yards wide ; at no point lower was 

 it less in width. Its mean depth is 25 feet, and its current not.more than 

 SO to 100 feet per minute. From Mr. Grenfell's notes it would seem that 

 this river is navigable the whole way from the Congo to 4° 30' north, a 

 distance of probably 400 to 450 miles, taking account of the bends. 

 His opinion and that of his Congo colleagues seems to be that the Mo- 

 bangi is probably the lower part of the Welle, a river whose course is 

 one of the unsolved problems of African geography ; but this opinion 

 is scarcely sustained by the knowledge we now have of the region. 

 Arguing from analogy, we should conclude that the source of the Mo- 

 bangi does not lie east of 20^ east longitude, and applying the meas- 

 urements to Stanley's map, the watershed falls just on the line thereon 

 suggested. The distance in a direct line from the ultimate point reached 

 by Mr. Grenfell to the last-known point on the Welle is 540 miles, 

 and to the source of the Welle some 900 miles. It appears then to be 

 practically impossible for this river (of less than. the third of a mile in 

 width), to carry off the water of the Welle Basin; and Mr. Stanley's 

 suggestion, that the Bujere (wrongly called the Aruwimi) is the outlet 

 of the Welle is rather strengthened than otherwise by this latest, and 

 certainly not least important, contribution to our knowledge of the 

 mighty Congo. 



The Portuguese possess a tract of land on the northern bank of the 

 Congo, extending from Cape Lembo, south of Kabinda Bay, to Massabo, 

 and exteuding inland 30 or 40 miles so as to contain Kabinda, Molembo, 

 Landana, and Massab6. 



The whole of the valley of the Kwilu, where the International Associa- 

 tion had eighteen stations, is ceded to France. M. de Brazza, recently 

 returned from Africa, reports most satisfactorily from the French Posses- 

 sions on the Congo ; his reports are so late as October 13, 1885. 



The limits of the new " Kjngdom of the Congo," as recognized by the 

 Berlin Conference, appear to be as follows: On the Atlantic seaboard, 

 from Banana point to Gab6 (5° 45' south latitude), then by one parallel 

 of Gab6 to the meridian of Ponta da Lenha, by this meridian north to 

 the Chiloango, thence to the source of that river, thence to the Mfomba- 

 Mataca falls of the Congo, leaving to the French the station of Mboco, 



