374 



GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERY. 



me natives, while the other is connected with 

 the Old Calabar. 



The excursion of 1884-'85 to the posts on the 

 upper Senegal and Niger, under Commandant 

 Combes, has led to a further extension of the 

 French dominion. A new post was founded 

 near Niagassola, giving a second route from 

 Kita to the upper Niger. The northern route 

 leads by way of Kundu to Bammako, the south- 

 ern by way of Niagassola to Kengaba. The dis- 

 trict of Bure, between the head-waters of the 

 Senegal and the Niger, important on account 

 of its gold, was at the same time declared un- 

 der the protection of the French Government. 

 Combes, however, could not bring the Proph- 

 et Samory, who heads the resistance of the 

 natives, to any decisive combat, although he 

 crossed the Niger and pursued the prophet for 

 a long distance. As soon as the French troops 

 began to withdraw, Samory was at their rear, 

 although he was several times driven back. 

 For these reasons it became necessary to send 

 a greater force; and Col. Frey was therefore 

 dispatched the latter part of November, 1885. 

 Progress has been made in filling the gaps in 

 the telegraph line between the colony of Sene- 

 gal and the posts on the upper river, so that 

 there now remain only the ninety-seven kilo- 

 metres between Matam and Bakel to be com- 

 pleted in order to make direct telegraphic com- 

 munication between Bammako on the Niger 

 and St. Louis, the capital of Senegal, and there- 

 by with France. 



In the northwest some attempts have been 

 made to gain better knowledge of the least- 

 known regions, and open them to trade. The 

 district Rif, in Morocco, on the border of the 

 Mediterranean, standing in a relation of loose 

 dependence on the Government of Morocco, has 

 always been closed to curious Europeans. The 

 piratical inhabitants were long a terror to the 

 commerce of the Mediterranean. The latest 

 failure is that of H. Duveyrier, the explorer 

 of the Sahara, who made a vain attempt this 

 year to penetrate into the district, and whose 

 notes on the journey that he did accomplish 

 are to be published by the Paris Geographical 

 Society. 



A Spanish officer, J. Cervera Baviera, has 

 published an account of a geographico-military 

 expedition to the interior and along the coasts of 

 Morocco, undertaken mainly with a view to an 

 examination of the roads, the military works, 

 and all points bearing on the subject of a possi- 

 ble campaign. He regards the port of Rabat as 

 the best starting-point for offensive operations, 

 the road from it to the capital offering few dif- 

 ficulties in the way of an army's march. The 

 same officer has since been in charge of an 

 expedition for the exploration of the Sahara, 

 which left the station on the Rio Oro, June 16, 

 1886, and returned to it, July 24, after great 

 suffering from the heat and the want of pro- 

 visions and water, having gone 425 kilometres 

 from the coast to Adrar, which they describe 

 as a continuation of the desert, without vegeta- 



tion, and poorly inhabited. Numerous astro- 

 nomical and meterological observations were 

 made, geologic and natural history specimens 

 collected, and a route laid out. 



A young French traveler, Lieut. Palat, who 

 went out to find a direct route for commerce 

 between Algiers and Timbuctoo, and to ex- 

 plore the Tuareg country, has fallen a victim 

 to the hardships of the journey. A part only 

 of his journals was saved. This and his letters 

 include details of his route from October, 1885, 

 to January, 1886, from Geryville by way of 

 Golea to Gurara. From this it appears that 

 this group of oases is considerably nearer to 

 Golea than has heretofore been supposed. 



In the year 1876 an agreement was entered 

 into on the part of Donald Mackenzie, the 

 originator of the project to flood the western 

 part of the Sahara with water, and the Moor- 

 ish tribes at Cape Juby, that led to the giving 

 up on their part of the district about the prom- 

 ontory called by the natives Tarfaja, and to 

 the establishment of a station by the North- 

 west African Company. In 1880 the tribes 

 were set on by the Sultan of Morocco, who 

 feared that the trade of his subjects would 

 suffer, and destroyed the station on the main- 

 land, breaking up the trade for two years. 

 During this time a stone fort was built on the 

 ridge guarding the harbor, the materials having 

 been brought from England and the Canary 

 Islands. The English Government interfered, 

 though refusing the company a charter grant- 

 ing rights of sovereignty, and the trade with 

 the neighboring tribes and those more distant, 

 began once more to flourish. Whether the 

 attempt of the company to divert the trade 

 from Adrar to Tarfaja will succeed, seems 

 doubtful, since the Spanish station at Cape 

 Ouro is only 430 kilometres distant, while 

 Cape Juby is 650, and the Senegal, to which a 

 great part of the trade has heretofore been 

 directed, is about as far. 



The boundaries between Tunis and Tripoli 

 have long been unsettled, and an attempt has 

 been made, by means of a compact between 

 the French Republic and Turkey, through the 

 Pasha of Tripoli, to have the matter definitely 

 settled. The bay Ras Tadjer, on the Mediter- 

 ranean coast, 32 kilometres east from Cape 

 El-Bibau. has been selected as the starting- 

 point of the line, thus giving the entire Bay of 

 El-Bibau to French control. 



Asia. The discovery of coal of fair quality 

 in accessible places, in the neighborhood of the 

 Lena, will greatly facilitate the navigation of 

 that river by steam an undertaking hereto- 

 fore attended with some difficulty on account 

 of the loss of time connected with the procur- 

 ing of wood and the lack of coal. 



The Scientific-Industrial Exposition for Sibe- 

 ria and the Ural, planned by the Society of the 

 Friends of Natural Science, has a grant of 5,000 

 rubles from the Russian Government as good 

 as secured, and will be opened in 1887 at 

 Ekaterinburg. Sections for exhibits in the 



