GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS. (AFRICA.) 



315 



ited by Capt. Deasy, who has explored a territory 

 only in part examined heretofore by Russian and 

 English travelers. Although provided with a 

 passport from Chinese authorities, Capt. Deasy 

 found his progress so obstructed that part of his 

 proposed route had to be abandoned. 



A Dutch missionary, Mr. Rijuhart, who was 

 stationed in Tibet, undertook a journey to 

 Lhasa, accompanied by his wife and their in- 

 fant son. It ended disastrously, the child hav- 

 ing died from the hardships of the journey and 

 the party having been attacked by Tibetans. 

 The men fled, leaving Mr. Rijuhart and his family 

 .alone. He recrossed a river they had just passed 

 to obtain assistance, as there were tents on the 

 opposite bank, but did not return. His wife 

 waited several days, and then made her way 

 with great difficulty to Chinese territory, uncer- 

 tain whether Mr. Rijuhart was dead or a prisoner. 



In 1898 Mr. Gaedertz, a German engineer, made 

 .a journey in the Chinese province of Shantung. 

 From the temple-crowned summit of the Yo- 

 Shan a sea of mountains could be seen south- 

 ward. It is proposed to construct a railway 

 through the region traversed by Mr. Gaedertz, 

 who was engaged by a Hamburg syndicate to 

 examine the proposed route. There are large 

 towns on the route. Chau-Tsun is a city of 50,000 

 inhabitants, and the center of the silk trade of 

 the province. Po-Shan is in the coal district, 

 and has pottery, glass, and iron works. 



Mount Kinabalu, in North Borneo, was as- 

 cended in April by H. T. Burls, who gives the 

 height as 12,043 feet. In crevices of the rock 

 on the summit small pellucid quartz crystals 

 were found, and Mr. Burls conjectured that large 

 specimens of the kind had given rise to the legend 

 that there was a great diamond at the top, 

 guarded by a dragon, which had devoured so 

 many Chinamen in search of the diamond that 

 the mountain received the name Kina Balu, mean- 

 ing " Chinese widow." 



Mr. R. P. Cobbold returned in the spring from 

 .a thirteen months' journey in the Pamirs, during 

 which he was arrested and detained for three 

 weeks by the Russians, and finally escorted by 

 Cossacks across the Chinese frontier. Mr. Cob- 

 bold visited several districts never before ex- 

 plored by Englishmen. 



K. T. Stoepel ascended the main northern peak 

 of Mount Morrison, in Formosa, in December, 

 1898. The mountain group is called in Japanese 

 Niitakayama " the new high mountain " but 

 by the natives Pataquan. 



Africa. The agreement between France and 

 England denning the spheres of interest of the 

 two powers in eastern Africa draws, according 

 to the London Times of March 23, " a line run- 

 ning roughly north and south, and pledges Eng- 

 land not to acquire either territory or political 

 influence west of this line, and France not to 

 acquire them to the east of it. The line begins 

 on the northern frontier of the Congo State at 

 the watershed of the Congo and the Nile, and 

 follows that watershed to 11 north. From this 

 point to 15 north it is to be traced by a mixed 

 commission between Darfur and Wadai, leaving 

 the former to England and the latter to France. 

 The northern section of the line is traced in the 

 French note from north to south, instead of 

 being continued from the northern frontier of 

 Darfur. It is described as beginning at the inter- 

 section of the sixteenth degree east of Greenwich 

 with the tropic of Cancer, a point near the south- 

 ern frontier of Tripoli. It is to be drawn south- 

 east until it cuts the twenty-fourth degree east 

 of Greenwich, and it is then to follow that de- 



gree until it reaches the northern border of Dar- 

 fur. A glance at the map will show that by this 

 arrangement the whole of the Bahr-el-Ghazal and 

 all the old provinces of Egypt west of the Nile 

 fall within the British sphere that is, we hold 

 free from French pretensions for the future the 

 entire basin of the upper Nile right up to the 

 great lakes. That is the result which we have 

 sought to obtain throughout the negotiations, 

 and we appear to have obtained it in the amplest 

 way. The report of Sir William Garstin on the 

 portions of this territory immediately south of 

 Khartoum will cause neither surprise nor dis- 

 appointment to those who have taken the pains 

 to make themselves moderately acquainted with 

 previous accounts of this part of the Soudan. 

 The country about the White Nile is for a great 

 distance a pestilential swamp, and it may be 

 doubted whether even the genius and persever- 

 ance of the Anglo-Egyptian engineers will be able 

 to improve it materially within a generation. Be- 

 yond the points which he reached lie other por- 

 tions of the Soudan of a less unpromising char- 

 acter, but, speaking generally, Sir William Gar- 

 stin is probably not far wrong when he says that 

 at present it can be of no practical advantage to 

 a civilized power if by practical advantage mate- 

 rial advantage is intended. But it was not for 

 the sake of material advantages that we were 

 determined to acquire the upper part of the Nile 

 basin. Political and military considerations of 

 an imperative kind gave us no choice in the mat- 

 ter. ' The Nile is Egypt, and Egypt is the Nile,' 

 and it was vital to us as the trustees of Egypt 

 to hold the Nile from the sea to the great lakes." 



This gives England a continuous line through 

 eastern Africa, except for that part south of the 

 equator where the Congo State and the German 

 possessions meet. An agreement has been made 

 by which Germany grants to the African Trans- 

 continental Telegraph Company the right to 

 carry across its territory the line intended to 

 connect Cape Town with Cairo. 



The railway to Khartoum was to be ready 

 for travel in December. The line through East 

 Africa from north to south can now be carried, 

 like the telegraph, mainly through British terri- 

 tory. 



A German steamer has been sent to Lake Tan- 

 ganyika. 



In connection with the agreement concerning 

 Samoa some doubtful boundaries in Africa were 

 settled, given as follow: "Further articles of 

 the agreement provide for the demarcation of the 

 frontier in the Hinterland of German Togoland 

 and the British Gold Coast colony, and for the 

 renunciation of German extraterritorial rights in 

 Zanzibar, to take effect when other nations have 

 also given up their extraterritorial rights in that 

 dependency. The neutral zone of Salaga in West 

 Africa has been a bone of contention between 

 Germany and England since the square block of 

 territory was provisionally declared neutral in 

 1888. The agreement now arrived at appears to 

 secure for England the largest slice of the zone 

 and the territory of Gambaga north of it." 



Mr. W. Willcocks wrote from Cairo Sept. 18: 

 " Egypt is experiencing one of the worst floods 

 of the century, and that branch of the river 

 which leaves the great equatorial lakes seems to 

 have failed completely. This branch (let us call 

 it the White Nile) is completely closed by the 

 sudd, and the waters are wandering over the 

 immense swamps which stretch from latitude 7 

 to latitude 10. The failure of this supply in the 

 summer of 1900 will be serious." He says the 

 waters that leave the great lakes are estimated 



