224 



NATURE 



[July 3, 1890 



colour was coppery ; the fell over the body was almost 

 furry, being nearly half an inch in length. His head- 

 dress was a bonnet of a priestly form, decorated with a 

 bunch of parrot feathers ; it was either a gift or had been 

 stolen. A broad strip of bark covered his nakedness. 

 His hands were very dehcate, and attracted attention by 

 their unwashed appearance." 



The chapter on the forest in the second volume, 

 abounds with information concerning the various tribes 

 which inhabit the forest region. There is a family 

 likeness among all the varieties. With regard to the 

 pigmies, Mr. Stanley maintains there are two distinct 

 types (Batwa and Wambutti), which differ as much 

 from each other as a Turk would from a Scandinavian. 

 The Batwa have longish heads and long narrow faces, 

 reddish small eyes, set close together, which give them a 

 somewhat ferrety look, sour, anxious, and querulous. The 

 Wambutti have round faces, gazelle-like eyes, set far 

 apart, open foreheads, which give one an impression 

 of undisguised frankness, and are of a rich, yellow, ivory 

 complexion. The Wambutti occupy the southern half of 

 the Ituri region, the Batwa the northern, and extend south- 

 easterly to the Awamba forest on both banks of the 

 Semliki river, and east of the Ituri. The women are 



agriculturists and the men hunters. Though their 

 nomad habits are often annoying to the forest tribes 

 of larger make, yet the latter find the pigmies exceed- 

 ingly useful as scouts who give warning of the approach 

 of the enemy. As might have been expected, the forest 

 peoples are all of lighter complexion than the inhabitants 

 of the open grass lands. With regard to the poison of the 

 arrows of these pigmies, Mr. Stanley does not insist so 

 strongly on its insect origin as he did in his letter to 

 the Royal Geographical Society. The poison, he states, 

 seems to be made from a species of arum. It is evident 

 from these allusions that Mr. Stanley's contributions to a 

 knowledge of the ethnology of the region are of great 

 interest ; indeed, they entitle him to be classed among 

 those students of science whom he professes to despise. 



The great forest, in which so much of the time of the 

 Expedition was spent, and which entailed upon it so much 

 suffering and so many losses, pervades the whole work ; 

 and one might even trace its depressing influences upon 

 Mr. Stanley's style in the earlier chapters of the book. 

 There are several points of great scientific interest con- 

 nected with the forest. Mr. Stanley refers to Prof. Drum- 

 mond in terms unnecessarily severe, because in his book 

 on " Tropical Africa" he describes the type of African 



Cascades of the Nepoko. 



forest as quite different from that of Brazil. But Prof 

 Drummond can only be taken as referring to that part of 

 Africa with which he is perfectly familiar, the Lake 

 Nyassa region, where as in East Africa generally the 

 " forest " is of the open park-like character, with dense 

 patches here and there. But the fact is, we are apt to 

 forget that Africa is a great continent covering some 

 1 1 million square miles, and that its surface presents a 

 great variety of features. Here is how Mr. Stanley puts 

 it : — 



" Nyassaland is not Africa, but itself Neither can we 

 call the wilderness of Masai Land, or the scrub-covered 

 deserts of Kalahari, or the rolling grass land of Usukuma, 

 or the thin forests of Unyamwezi, or the ochreous acacia- 

 covered area of Ugogo, anything but sections of a conti- 

 nent that boasts many zones. Africa is about three times 

 greater than Europe in its extent, and is infinitely more 

 varied. You have the desert of deserts in the Sahara, 

 you have the steppes of Eastern Russia in Masai Land 

 and parts of South Africa, you have the Castilian uplands 

 in Unyamwezi, you have the best parts of France repre- 

 sented by Egypt, you have Switzerland in Ukonju and 

 Toro, the Alps in Ruwenzori — you have Brazil in the 

 Congo basin, the Amazon in the Congo River, and its 



immense forests rivalled by the Central African forest 

 which I am about to describe. 



" The greatest length of this forest, that is from near 

 Kabambarr^ in South Manyuema to Bagbomo on the 

 Welle-Makua in West Niam-niam, is 621 miles ; its aver- 

 age breadth is 517 miles, which makes a compact square 

 area of 321,057 square miles. This is exclusive of the 

 forest areas separated or penetrated into by campo-like 

 reaches of grass land, or of the broad belts of timber 

 which fill the lower levels of each great river basin like 

 the Lumani, Lulungu, Welle-Mubangi, and the parent 

 river from Bolobo to the Loika River. 



" The Congo and the Aruwimi Rivers enabled us to 

 penetrate this vast area of primeval woods a consider- 

 able length. I only mean to treat, therefore, of that 

 portion which extends from Yambuya in 25° 3*' E. L. 

 to Indesura, 29° 59' = 326J English miles in a straight 

 line." 



Mr. Stanley's description of an African tropical fore*t 

 is also worth quoting : — 



" Imagine the whole of France and the Iberian penin- 

 sula closely packed with trees varying from 20 to 180 feet 

 high, whose crowns of foliage interlace and prevent any 

 view of the sky and sun, and each tree from a few inches 



NO. 1079, VOL. 42] 



