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paratively narrow tract of land, which terminates in Cape 

 Clara, 1 8' N. lat. Into the northern of these bays the 

 river Danger, or Rio d'Angra, empties itself. This river, 

 which is called by the natives Mob'hnda, flows, according to 

 the information collected by Bowdich, far from the interior, 

 and though it is not so wide as the Gaboon, its southern neigh- 

 bour, it is considerably deeper : it is not visited by European 

 vessels. The southern bay between Cape Clara and Sandy 

 Point may be considered as the aestuary of the Gaboon river. 



The Gaboon or Gabon river is the only place on the coast 

 of the bay of Biafra which has been frequented by Euro- 

 pean vessels, and of which we have obtained more parti- 

 cular information. Its extensive sestuary at its junction 

 with the open sea is on an average eighteen miles wide, 

 Cape Clara being twenty-five miles distant from Sandy 

 Point, and it extends eastward forty- five miles and up- 

 wards. About twenty-two or twenty-three miles from the 

 open sea are two islands, called Parrot or Embenee and 

 Konig or Dambee, of which only the latter and larger is 

 inhabited. East of these islands the sestuary grows still 

 wider, forming two small bays on the south and north, so 

 that it here is thirty miles across ; but it soon narrows to 

 about twelve miles, which breadth it preserves to its eastern 

 extremity, about forty or forty-five miles from the sea. At 

 its upper end it receives two large rivers . one runs from 

 the east, and falls into the testuary with a mouth about 

 four miles wide ; the other proceeds from the S.S.E., and 

 at its embouchure is about two miles wide. The eastern 

 river, at a considerable distance from its mouth, is still a mile 

 wide. The river, which flows from the S.E., is Ogovawai, 

 and is said to divide in the interior into two branches, of 

 which the southern one runs into the Congo, which is com- 

 paratively a small river before this confluence, which takes 

 place about ten days' pull from the mouth of the Congo river. 



The places most resorted to by European traders are 

 George's Town or Naiingo, on a creek of the sestuary of the 

 Gaboon, about forty-five miles from the sea, and Mayumba, 

 farther south on the coast, and nearly at equal distance 

 from the Gaboon and Congo rivers. Naango consists of 

 One street, wide, regular, and clean. The houses are very 

 neatly constructed of bamboo, and the manners of the more 

 wealthy inhabitants are very pleasing and hospitable, and 

 a European may reside among them not only with safety 

 but with comfort. The inhabitants do not amount to more 

 than 500 in number. The principal exports are red wood 

 and ivory, both of which are in abundance. 



The clim.ate about this part of the Gaboon is very un- 

 healthy, the heat being very great and always sensibly 

 greater than on the Gold Coast or in the interior ; but it is 

 especially intense before the setting in of the sea breeze. 

 The insalubrity of the climate is, however, still more caused 

 by evaporation, especially in the wet season, when the va- 

 pours rising from the inundated country render the atmo- 

 sphere so dense that it becomes very oppressive. 



Wild animals are numerous, especially elephants, which 

 are killed by the natives with poisoned arms. They uso 

 for this purpose two kinds of poison, both of which are the 

 milky juices of the stalks of plants. These poisons are 

 rubbed on the musket-balls, spears, arrows, and knives, 

 and the effect on the elephant is described as almost in- 

 stantaneous. Other remarkable animals are the ourang- 

 outang and other kinds of monkeys, among which one, called 

 by the natives indeyana, is said to be five feet high and four 

 feet across the shoulders. Cameleons are frequent. Of 

 domestic animals only goats and fowls are reared, and in 

 the interior dogs also, where they are used as food. Water- 

 birds are not common, except pelicans. In the creeks of 

 the sestuary white mullets abound. 



Agriculture is very little attended to, nature having been 

 so bountiful in her gifts that the labour of sowing and reap- 

 ing is almost unnecessary. Cotton and tobacco grow spon- 

 taneously (Bowdich) ; the caoutchouc tree is common, and 

 likewise a species of butter tree, and the tree from which the 

 kolla-nuts are gathered. The mangrove trees are found on 

 the banks of the creeks and rivers, and they even grow some 

 y;inls from the bank in the water, where their lower branches 

 are frequently-covered with oysters. The palm-wine tree 

 is plentiful. Like most parts of the countries enclosing the 

 Gulf of Guinea, the woods are so covered beneath with 

 shrubs and plants that they seem impenetrable. Immense 

 runners, twisting together, drop from the branches like 

 large cables, generally covered with parasites ; sometimes 

 they adhere to the parent stem, and become themselves a 



tree ; at others they shoot across to the branches of a neigh- 

 bouring tree, and thus seem to form the forest into one mass 

 The climbing plants contribute to their entanglement; in- 

 terlacing their tendrils among the trees, they enwreath 

 them in the most beautiful flowers, and dropping in festoons 

 form a splendid drapery to the green of the canopy. 



Neither gold nor silver is found in this part of Africa. 

 Iron is everywhere abundant, and is got out and worked by 

 the Kaylee, a nation inhabiting the mountainous and woody 

 country east of the Gaboon on the banks of the river run- 

 ning from the east. This tribe seems also to have made 

 some progress in other branches of industry: they make 

 cloth of bamboo, which resembles very much in appearance 

 coarse brown Holland. Their mats are very fine, and much 

 varied in colours and patterns. 



The negro tribes inhabiting this country do not seem to 

 belong to one nation : the languages spoken by them vary 

 too greatly to admit such a supposition ; but the scanty 

 vocabularies hitherto obtained are quite insufficient to enable 

 us to decide this point. This country contains a great num- 

 ber of small states, no great controlling kingdom being 

 found here as to the west of the Quorra, like those of Ashan- 

 tee, Dahomey, and Benin. The most considerable is that of 

 Oroongo, which comprehends the country about Cape- 

 Lopez. (Bowdich's Mission from Cape Coast Castle to the 

 Ashantee; Lander; Journal of the Geographical Society, 

 ii. ; Map of Berghaus.) 



BIALYSTOCK, a province of Western Russia, compre- 

 hended in what is termed 'The Midland Region,' and 

 situated between 52 3' and 53 38' N. lat., and 22 30' 

 and 24 12' E. long. It is bounded on the north and west 

 by Poland, and on the south and east by the Russian 

 province of Grodno; its superficial extent is about 3360 

 square miles. It constituted part of the former kingdom of 

 Poland, and belonged to the voyvodeship of Podlachia until 

 it was incorporated with the Russian dominions under the 

 third treaty of partition in 1 795. The greater part of Bialy- 

 stock, however, was afterwards transferred to the duchy 

 of Warsaw by virtue of the treaty of Tilsit in 1807, and 

 the remainder having been ceded to Russia was erected 

 into a distinct province, which an ukase of 1831 placed 

 under the control of the government of Grodno. The gene- 

 ral character of its surface is a flat, studded with sand- 

 hills : the soil is in most parts light and sandy, but adapted 

 to agricultural purposes, and in the southern districts, where 

 there is an intermixture of sand and loam, it is highly pro- 

 ductive. Three out of the four circles of the province, that 

 of Beltz forming the exception, contain extensive woods, 

 and forests. The principal river of this province is the 

 Western Bug, which forms its south-western boundary from 

 Niomiroff to the village of Glina, and being navigable con- 

 nects it with Warsaw and Danzig through the intervention 

 of the Vistula : its tributaries are the Nurzek, which rises 

 in the heart of the province, and for a short distance skirts 

 it on the side of Poland ; and the Nareva, whose winding 

 course traverses Bialy stock from north-east to south-west, 

 though it is not navigable. The Suprasl, adapted only for 

 floating timber, falls into the Nareva in this province, and 

 also the Sober, Bobra, or Biebeza : both rivers separate the 

 province from Poland for a considerable distance ; the Sober 

 is extremely slow, edged with swamps and rushes, inundates, 

 the adjacent country in spring, and its waters are always 

 muddy. Between the Nareva and Goniondz, the Bober 

 converts an area of full 210 square miles into a complete 

 morass. The climate is temperate though moist, and not 

 unhealthy in those parts where the exhalations from the 

 swamps do not infect the atmosphere. The inhabitants are 

 principally employed in husbandry, and raise sufficient 

 grain, particularly rye and wheat, not only for their own 

 consumption but for export. Buckwheat, pease, hemp, and, 

 in sandy soils, flax, are grown extensively : neither vege- 

 tables nor fruit, except in a wild state, grow anywhere but 

 on the estates of the nobility, and even then they are of 

 the most ordinary descriptions ; hops are raised in the 

 environs of Nareff and Kleszel. The supply of timber, 

 though abundant, is diminishing for want of replanting. 

 Game and wild animals, particularly wolves, foxes, deer, 

 and boars, are plentiful ; the breed of horses is good and of 

 a very durable kind ; the sheep are of the black species, 

 but much neglected ; and the rearing of horned cattle is so 

 ill conducted that milk is scarce, and the inhabitants are 

 obliged to import both butter and cheese. Small quantities 

 of tallow, black wool, wax, and honey are exported ; the figh- 



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