GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERY. 



307 



Tin- valley of the Kagera, however, would make an 

 almost perfect railway track so far as I have seen; 

 and along the Mavona valley, which joins it, a track 

 could probably be made with great ease into the heart 

 of AnKole, and probably up to the Ruizi valley or 

 plain. Ox wagons seem to be the only substitute for 

 a railway line, from which no revenue could be had 

 in Ankole for many years. 



It has long been a problem with geographers 

 whether the Djuba (or Juba), a large river flow- 

 ing into the Indian Ocean near the equator, could 

 be identical with the Godjeb-Omo in the Sidama 

 country, discovered by the brothers d'Abbadie, 

 who thought it flowed to the Sobat, and so 

 finally reached the White Nile. Later it appeared 

 from other explorations as if the Godjeb-Omo 

 discharged into Lake Rudolph, thus flowing 

 through the depression between the upper Ha- 

 wasch and Lake Rudolph in the Ethiopian high- 

 lands, and that consequently the Juba must have 

 its source in the mountains on the eastern bor- 

 der of this depression in the highlands. This 

 view has been confirmed by the explorations of 

 Capts. Bottego and Grixoni and Prince Ruspoli. 

 Prince Ruspoli, who was killed by an elephant 

 while on his expedition, Dec. 4, 1893, went far 

 enough to find that the Omo is tributary to Ru- 

 dolph lake, and explored the Dau, the largest 

 western affluent of the Juba, so that much more 

 is known of the source of the Juba and the ex- 

 tent of the territory it drains. From the upper 

 Dau the expedition passed over the watershed 

 south of Lake Abba, and, reaching the Omo (San- 

 gan), proceeded up its right bank to Gubald- 

 jenda, in the Gobo country. 



A party headed by Dr. Donaldson Smith, of 

 Philadelphia, set out in June to explore the re- 

 gion 200 miles west of Berbera and Lake Ru- 

 dolph. In September they reached a large 

 stream believed to be the Erer. They explored 

 the country west of Milmil, and surveyed several 

 rivers. 



The exploration of German East Africa is 

 substantially, finished by the observations of 

 the large expedition led' by the Baron von 

 Schele, the governor, November, 1893, to March, 

 1894. Prom the south bank of the Ulanga, a 

 tributary of the Rufidji, discovered by Count 

 Pfeil in 1886, the route led through the terri- 

 tory of the Mafiti and Wabena. One of the ob- 

 jects of the expedition was to punish the raids 

 of these tribes, some of whom gathered and 

 offered ineffectual resistance. Another object 

 was the discovery of the best route between the 

 new station on Lake Nyassa, Langenburg, and 

 the coast. The Livingstone range, which forms 

 the watershed between Nyassa and the Ulanga, 

 was passed with difficulty; the way led down 

 steep and almost impassable paths from a height 

 of 1,800 metres to the shore of the lake. After 

 making a journey through the Konde country 

 as far as Usango, the expedition took another 

 route for the return journey from Langenburg, 

 which was found to be more practicable than 

 the other. From Amelia Bay it led through the 

 thinly peopled, unknown country of the Mag- 

 wangwara, to Kilwa. The valley of the Ulanga 

 and the valleys of the Livingstone range are 

 exceedingly fertile, but the Konde country was 

 found to be the richest of any passed through ; 

 even the higher elevations are suitable for Euro- 



pean settlements. Surveys were made by Capt. 

 Ramsay which will fill some considerable gaps 

 in the map of the region. The steamer " Wiss- 

 mann," on the lake, has proved to be of great 

 benefit. 



The Waziba, a Central African tribe living 

 west of the Victoria Nyanza, south of the Kagera 

 river and north of the Wazinja territory, have 

 been described by Capt. Herrmann. Little has 

 been known of this tribe, which occupies an iso- 

 lated position. They are described as differing 

 in feature from the typical negro, while their 

 color is an even "lampblack." They are esti- 

 mated to number about 150,000. Their dwell- 

 ings are of the beehive type, sometimes over 30 

 feet high, with a sort of' covered porch before 

 the doorway, which is the only aperture. They 

 seem intelligent, and superior to other more fa- 

 vorably situated races, and are friendly to the 

 Germans, who have helped to free them from 

 the exactions of the Waganda, to whom they 

 formerly owed allegiance. 



Asia. Explorations have been made in Asia 

 by M. de Poncin, Dr. Sven Hedin, the Earl of 

 Dunmore, Mr. and Mrs. Littledale, Capt. Robo- 

 rowsky, Mr. and Mrs. Bent, MM. Menkhudjinow 

 and Ulanow, M. Dutreuil de Rhins, who was 

 murdered by Tibetans on the way from Inner 

 Tibet to Sining, June 5, and by others. 



Baron von Oppenheim journeyed through 

 Syria, over regions little known, exploring the 

 upper and middle course of the Chabur and its 

 affluents. 



M. de Poncin crossed the Pamirs and discov- 

 ered a small lake east of the pass called Bender- 

 ski, which leads over the ridge between the 

 Great Pamir and Chakmak lake. It is at a great 

 elevation. 



The Swedish explorer Dr. Sven Hedin also 

 crossed the Pamirs, and explored the lake called 

 Yashil-kul, and the mountain group Mustaghata 

 and its glaciers. 



The Earl of Dunmore examined the eastern 

 passes of the Hindu Kush, and found that the 

 Kilik pass forms a route between the Jarkand 

 and the Hunsa valleys shorter by three days than 

 the Mintok pass, which hitherto has been the 

 usual route over the Hindu Kush at this part of 

 the mountains. 



Mr. and Mrs. St. George R. Littledale made a 

 journey of eight months, partly over new routes, 

 from Batum to Pekin. From Lob Nor they 

 took a route traveled heretofore only by Marco 

 Polo among explorers. Their observations were 

 throughout confirmatory of his. The route lay 

 along the northern slope of the Altyn Tagh. At 

 the oasis Sa-chu they entered known territory 

 again, followed Prjevalsky's route for a short 

 distance, then took the northern declivity of the 

 Humboldt range, which they finally crossed and 

 went on to Koko Nor. From Lan-chau they 

 took first a raft and then a boat down the 

 Hoang-ho, which they were the first Europeans 

 to explore throughout its length. 



The Roborowsky expedition of the Russian 

 Imperial Geographical Society took a route 

 from the neighborhood of Issik-kul, or Issik 

 lake, which was parallel to and south of that 

 taken by Prjevalsky in 1876. It led down the 

 valley of the Tekes, one of the head streams of 

 the lli, and up the Kok-su, an affluent of the 



