GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERY IN 1876. 



888 



part entirely new. Tho barometer indicated 

 it ri-r from th.- cou-t to tin- ridgo of tho Mwora 

 Hills, which was about 2,000 feet ubnvu tho 

 level of tho BOO, then u decline to the bottom 

 of tho low-lying Rovuina Valley, and then an- 

 other still higher ascent as fur as Mataka's 

 town. 



Stanley, in June, 1875, had returned to his 

 camp at Kagcnyi, and, after having paid a visit 

 to Ukerewo Island, returned to the north, 

 striking out for the Albert N'yanza from Mtesa's 

 town. lie traversed the cold, high country of 

 Gambaragura, which ho found inhabited by a 

 light-skinned race, and tho district of Unyoro 

 coming out to tho lake at Unyampaka, a point 

 considerably farther to the south probably 

 than Baker reached. He explored the Kagero 

 and Karagne Rivers upon his return, and then 

 set out again for tho south. He had completed 

 the examination of the Victoria Lake, and in- 

 tended next to explore the country between 

 the lakes Tanganyika and Albert N'yanza. In 

 the highlands between lakes Victoria and Al- 

 bert N'yanza he came upon a gigantic extinct 

 volcano, many of which have been found in 

 Eastern Africa. The Albert N'yanza extends 

 probably beyond the equator, and is connected 

 with the Tanganyika by a valley between two 

 mountain-chains. Stanley observed that all 

 the mountain-ranges in this region run in a 

 southwest direction. He ascended the Kagere 

 eighty miles beyond Speke's farthest, and de- 

 scribes it as the most important ot the tribu- 

 taries of the Victoria N'yanza. He visited it 

 in the rainy season, when it had the form 

 of a shallow lagoon, four to fourteen miles in 

 breadth. 



Captain J. S. Hay read before the British 

 Association an account of the district of Akem 

 in Western Africa, which he had visited while 

 at Accra. This district lies between parallels 

 6 and 7 north latitude. It consists almost en- 

 tirely of mountain-ranges thickly covered with 

 ancient forests ; four principal rivers water 

 the country, the Berem, the Densu, the Bom- 

 pong, and the Pompong, all of them rendered 

 unnavigable by numerous shoals and water- 

 falls. Gold is found in great abundance, small 

 nuggets and dust being taken from circular 

 holes dug at hap-hazard by the natives, and also 

 from the beds of the streams. The forests con- 

 tain valuable woods. The soil is a tenacious 

 red clay, through which numerous quartz strata 

 crop up ; it is so fertile that cotton, rice, gin- 

 ger, and tobacco, can be grown abundantly. 

 The climate is moist throughout the year. A 

 strange physical deformity is universal among 

 the men of this country : the cheek-bones are 

 unnaturally enlarged, looking like two horns 

 under the eyes. This malformation com- 

 mences in childhood. They worship a great 

 variety of deities, and have one superior god, 

 whom they call Anyarikopong. 



Count Pietro Savergnan di Brazza, accom- 

 panied by Marche, the naturalist, and Bellay, 

 s physician, a French navy quartermaster, and 



a party of Senegal natives, entered upon an 

 exploration in Western Africa, steaming tip the 

 Ogowe a far a the village of Ilimba Keni in 

 December, 1875, and starting out from thtro 

 for the Okanda. 



SOUTH AMEHICA. A boundary commission 

 have been engaged in measuring the boundary 

 between Bolivia and Brazil, which has been 

 heretofore very vaguely determined. They 

 commenced their task in the autumn of 1874, 

 but were not able to accomplish anything be- 

 fore the summer of the following year, owing 

 to the incessant rains. Since that time they 

 have gone over a good part of the ground, and 

 expect to have their work finished by the end 

 of 1877. The work of surveying the frontier 

 along the chain of lakes bordering the Upper 

 Paraguay was interrupted twice by the period- 

 ical floods, which are so high that the country 

 between Bolivia and Curnmba, Villa Maria, or 

 Cuyaba, in Matto Grosso, can only be crossed 

 in boats, while in the dry season it is passable 

 on horseback or in wagons. The lakes, espe- 

 cially Mendior6, twelve leagues in circum- 

 ference, are described as navigable and very 

 beautiful, except Caceres, which is only a 

 swamp teeming with reptiles and mosquitcs. 

 The lake of Gayhiba, which was so stormy 

 that they had difficulty in surveying it, com- 

 municates with Lake Uberaba by a natural 

 canal five leagues in length. Uberaba Lake, 

 the largest of all, is so wide that the opposite 

 shores are not visible from each other. Alfred 

 Simson read before the British Association an 

 account of a voyage in a Brazilian government 

 steamer up the Putumayo or lea River, a 

 branch of the Amazon, which has never been 

 adequately explored, and which the Brazilian 

 Government suspected to be navigable to with- 

 in a short distance of populated portions of 

 New Granada, and destined to become the 

 commercial outlet for the provinces of Popayan 

 and Pasto. Mr. Simson found the river navi- 

 gable for 1,060 miles; its length is 1,200 miles. 

 Its average current is not more than three 

 miles an hour. Its course lies through a rich 

 alluvial plain. 



UNITED STATES. The geological and geo- 

 graphical survey of the Territories commenced 

 the labors of this year very late, not doing 

 any field-work before the month of August. 

 They were deterred by the warlike manifesta- 

 tions of the northern tribes of Indians from 

 commencing on a new division, and therefore 

 confined their attention to the completion of 

 the map of Colorado. They ended the survey 

 of the mountainous portion of Colorado, and 

 explored a strip fifteen miles broad in North- 

 ern New Mexico, and a strip twenty-five miles 

 in width in Eastern Utah. The point of de- 

 parture this season was Cheyenne, in "Wyo- 

 ming Territory. Two of the parties were 

 conveyed to Rawlins Springs, whence they 

 proceeded southward ; the other two were 

 taken southward from Cheyenne, one to Trin- 

 idad and one to Canon City. The primary 



