GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS. (AFRICA.) 



317 



Peters ancient ruins were found by Leonard 

 Puzey near the Muira, a southern affluent, in 

 Portuguese territory. They consisted mainly of 

 great circular walls, rising in places where they 

 were least broken to a height of 12 to 15 feet. 

 Dr. Peters says : " The whole of the ruin is built 

 after the general ancient Semitic pattern. The 

 cyclopean wall skirts the hill about halfway be- 

 tween the bottom and the top; on the top of the 

 buildings the hoarding place and likely the temple 

 were standing. The remains of a ground wall 

 along the edge of the top lead me to believe that 

 a second wall formerly ran around the platform 

 itself. To explore the ruin properly it will be 

 necessary to send a scientific expedition with a 

 proper outfit for such excavations. The debris 

 has to be removed, and this, I am sure, will take 

 considerable time. Why the old conquerors chose 

 this spot for their fort is easy to see. The Muira 

 touches the bottom of the hill, so water was 

 handy. A second river we have discovered at 

 the back of the ruin. From the top they had 

 an outlook over the wide plain before them, 

 while they had the bulk of the Fura massive at 

 their back. From their own fort they commanded 

 the plain as well as the mountain. I have called 

 the hill on which the ruin stands after its dis- 

 coverer, * Puzey Hill.' " 



Besides gold, Dr. Peters claims to have dis- 

 covered mica, saltpeter, and diamonds in a dis- 

 trict practically uninhabited at an altitude of 

 $,000 feet, and, he believes, easily capable of culti- 

 vation. He thinks Fura and Ophir are forms 

 of the same name, and that this may be the 

 Ophir of Scripture. 



Major Gibbons, who ascended the Zambesi, 

 found some inaccuracies in existing maps of the 

 Tegion. Mr. J. E. Moore, another explorer, found 

 the greatest depth of Lake Nyassa to be 430 

 fathoms. Near the junction of the Lulua and 

 Kasai rivers Mr. Verner, an American mission- 

 ary, found a series of lakes, formed by the ex- 

 pansion of tributary rivers. He named one Laps- 

 ley pool, after the* founder of the mission, and 

 another after United States Senator Morgan, who 

 was United States representative in Brussels 

 when the Congo State was recognized. Dr. Cu- 

 Teau has surveyed the Nile-Congo watershed. M. 

 Wauters has completed a map of the Congo 

 State. Herr Von Elpons, commandant of the 

 German station at Langenburg, ascended Mount 

 Hungwe, the highest summit of the region north- 

 west of Lake Nyassa, the height of which he 

 found to be 10,200 feet. 



Albert B. Lloyd, an English traveler, spent 

 three weeks in 1898 in the forest in the heart 

 of Africa inhabited by the pygmies described by 

 Du Chaillu and Stanley. For the first five days 

 he was without sight of a pygmy; but suddenly 

 lie became aware of their presence by mysterious 

 movements among the trees, which he at first 

 attributed to monkeys. Finally he came to a 

 clearing and stopped at a village where there 

 was a great number of the pygmy people. " They 

 told me," he says, "that unknown to me they 

 had been watching me fc-r five days, peering 

 through the growth of the forest. They appeared 

 very much frightened, and even when speaking 

 covered their faces." Such was their timidity 

 that it was difficult to get good photographs; 

 but Mr. Lloyd finally succeeded in obtaining a 

 considerable number, showing the little people 

 both singly and in groups. The measurements 

 made by Mr. Lloyd show not one over 4 feet in 

 height. The men have long beards, reaching half- 

 way down the chest. "They are," adds Mr. 

 Lloyd, " fairly intelligent. I had a long talk with 



a chief, who conversed intelligently about their 

 customs in the forest and the number of the 

 tribesmen. Both men and women, except for a 

 tiny strip of bark, were quite nude. The men 

 were armed with poisoned arrows. The chief 

 told me the tribes were nomadic, and never slept 

 two nights in the same place." Most of these 

 people have the normal negro features, some to 

 an exaggerated degree, although the color is de- 

 scribed as inclining rather to various shades of 

 brown and red, or chocolate, than black. 



The Ngoko, a western branch of Sauga river, 

 which forms a part of the boundary between 

 German and French territory in western Africa, 

 was explored this year by Dr. Pleyn. The Ngoko 

 is formed by the junction of the Bumba and the 

 Ja, respectively 100 and 150 yards wide at the 

 confluence. The Bumba is a swift stream, with 

 rapids and a fall, which stopped the progress of 

 the explorers. It is in about 2 30' north lati- 

 tude and 14 30' east longitude. Ascending the 

 Ja, the larger stream, Dr. Pleyn found at first 

 a few small villages ; then for four days he passed 

 through an uninhabited country. Wooded hills 

 bordered the river, some of them rising 2,000 feet 

 above it. Then a lakelike expansion of the river 

 was reached, and above it a narrow gorge with 

 several rapids. Up to this point the stream is 

 navigable for large river steamers. Above it not 

 even the canoes could be used; but the river was 

 examined to some distance above, where it again 

 broadened to about 150 yards. Rubber abounds 

 in the forests that cover the country, and ele- 

 phants are numerous. They are hunted by wan- 

 dering tribes, but the resident population is very 

 scanty. 



The Committee on Colonial Agriculture in Berlin 

 sent a mission in charge of Herr Schlechter to 

 West Africa to study the cultivation of the rub- 

 ber plant in that region. He found that the for- 

 ests where it once abounded in Lagos now show 

 but few of the trees, and he believes that its 

 day is over there unless measures are taken by 

 the authorities to preserve it. He collected seeds 

 for introduction into the Cameroons. 



M. Perregaux has made explorations in Ashanti. 



A singular story, given in dispatches from West 

 Africa to the French Cabinet Council, is given 

 in the London Times of Sept. 20, 1899, an ab- 

 stract of which follows: " Capt. Voulet, of the 

 French marines, who had acted with Capt. Cha- 

 noine, a son of Gen. Chanoine, Minister of War 

 in the Brisson Cabinet, in the Gurunsi-Mossi 

 country in 1897, desired to explore with his for- 

 mer comrade the country between Say and Lake 

 Chad assigned to France by the last agreement 

 with England. They were authorized to under- 

 take this expedition in July, 1898. In October 

 they were at Jenne, in the Massina country. 

 From this point Capt. Chanoine started to cross 

 the region inclosed in the great bend of the river, 

 while Capt. Voulet descended the stream by way 

 of Timbuctoo. The parties met at Sansanne 

 Hausa, about 90 miles above Say, early in Janu- 

 ary, and, after spending two months in reorgan- 

 izing their forces, they left for Lake Chad in 

 March. A lieutenant attached to the mission, 

 named Peteau, lodged charger of cruelty against 

 the officers in command with the French authori- 

 ties, and a preliminary inquiry was directed. The 

 details have not been made public, but a prima- 

 facie case against Capt. Voulet and Capt. Cha- 

 noine appears to have been made out to the satis- 

 faction of the French resident and the comman- 

 dant of the eastern Soudan. As a result of the 

 inquiry, Col. Klobb was directed to proceed from 

 Kayes, where he was then stationed, to join the 



