320 RECOKD OF SCIENCE FOR 1886. 



Ill this coimectioii it luight be well to ineutioii the fact that Grenfell 

 and V. Fian^ois liave been travelling xip the various tributaries, one 

 after another, as far as their little vessel could go, and have been re- 

 naming them all. 



Tlie Kingdom of Muata Yamvo, so'well described by Pogge, has been 

 recently visited by de Carvalho on a political mission from Portugal, in 

 which he is said to have been successful. 



After a while we may get some definite idea of the limits of the re- 

 gions of this continent, concerning which almost all the various nations 

 of Europe have been contending. The International Boundary Com- 

 mission have been having a difficult time locating the artificial limits 

 of these so-called states, which are sometimes marked by problematical 

 rivers. The members of the French Commission, Eouvier and Ballay, 

 and those of the Congo Free State, ascended the Congo, trying to find 

 the mouth of the Licoua, which was to be the boundary according to 

 the terms of the Berlin treaty. They reached the Bunga without find- 

 ing the Licona, and here the delegates of the two states signed a de- 

 claration which states " that the Licona of the maps and of the treaty 

 is nothing more than the Bunga." 



French Congo has been explored by J, De Brazza, who passed down 

 the Sekoli from a point near its source, for some distance, and then 

 traveled to the north and eastward. They intended going down the 

 river to its juncture with the Congo on their return, but the natives 

 would not supply them with canoes. They made boats for themselves, 

 and after a inontb's hard work reached the junction of the Sekoli and 

 Auibili. Later along they reached the Congo, and then made their way 

 back to the coast from Bunga station by way of the Alima and Ogowe. 



In South Africa the only expedition now in the field is that of Dr. 

 Holub. There have been many exi)lorations in previous years which 

 we are just commencing to hear from; for example, that of Capello and 

 Ivens, which extended from coast to coast; that of Montague Kerr from 

 Cape Colony to the Zambesi and Lake Nyassa ; that of Schulze to Lake 

 Ngami, and more recently that of Farini across the Kalahari Desert to 

 Lake Ngami. A rather energetic and carefully-planned expedition to the 

 Lower Niger and the Sokoto was made by Thomson last jear. They 

 steamed u{) these rivers as far as they could go, with their caravan al- 

 ready mounted, on board the vessel which carried them, and, when they 

 could go no further, landed and were ofl" before the natives knew what 

 was going on or could recover from the surprise. Their object was to 

 conclude treaties with the sultans of Hansa. Their promptness prob- 

 ably saved their lives, but all their papers and baggage were lost. The 

 lower portion of the Niger is held by the English nation, who control all 

 the commerce of tiiis region from their station at the junction of the 

 Niger and the Bonne. A German station has been founded at Bakundi 

 by Flegel, the ex[)lorer of the Torraba. The upper part of the river has 

 been carefully explored by Davoust, for, although previously studied by 



