TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 181 



On a new Route to the Sources of the Niger. By A. Boavden. 



On the Specific Gravitj/ of the Surface-water of the Ocean, as observed during 

 the Cruise of H.M.S. ' Challenger.'' By J, Y. Buchanan. 



On a new Deep-sea Thermometer. By J. Y. Bitch anan. 



On his Journey through Equatorial Africa. 

 By Commander V. L, Cameron, R.N., C.B. 



Tlie aiitlior said that soon after entering the country from the east coaat he came 

 to a large plateau, 4000 feet in height, encircling Lake Tanganyika, and forming 

 the watershed between the Congo and the streams flowing into Lake Sangora. 

 Another tableland to the south rose to the height of 3000 feet. The watershed 

 between the two basins of the Lualaba and the Congo at that part is a large, 

 nearly level country, and during the rainy season the floods cover the ground 

 between the two rivers, and a great portion of it might easily be made navigable. 

 One thing he noticed in Africa was this system of watersheds, dividing the 

 covmtry into portions, each having its own peculiarity, and also that in each there 

 was a difference in the habits of the natives. Within twenty days he crossed the 

 Nsagra Mountains and came upon a level open country where a great quantity 

 of African corn was grown, the stalks of which rose to the height of from 20 to 

 24 feet. In this country no animal could live except the goat, the tsetse fly being- 

 destructive to all others. The principal geological formation was sandstone. A 

 few marches brought him to Ugogo, an extensive plain broken by two ranges of 

 hills, composed of loose masses of granite piled together in the wildest confusion. 

 The soil was sandy and sterile. Coming to the country of the Ugari he found a 

 tribe almost identical with Unyamwesi. The principal streams of this district fall 

 . into the Mulgarazi, Unyamwesi was the commencement of the basin of the Congo. 

 He believed that the natives of Unyamwesi were of the Malay race ; they had crossed 

 a great deal with negi'oes, and had lost the distinctive colour and distinctive marks 

 of the race, but their features were much the same as the dominant races in Mada- 

 gascar. Ugaro is a large plain very nearly quite flat. The people here were 

 different from the L^nyamwesians ; they had not got tlie same features or the 

 same tribal marks. After passing over the mountains of Komendi, which are an off- 

 shoot of the mountains round the soutli end of Tanganyika, they came to a" fertile 

 laud, much of it laid waste by the ravages of a neighbouring tribe. All the moun- 

 tains in that district were of granite. There was there a large quantit}^ of salt, 

 and what was remarkable was that the rivers ran perfectly fresh through soil 

 which, when the natives dug wells, gave water which was full of salt. At Ujiji 

 the people are of a different race from those akeady described, as they shave their 

 hair diii'erently and have not the same features. Along Lake Tanganyika in some 

 places there were enormous cliffs and hollows of rugged granite lying in loose 

 boulders ; in other places the cliffs were of red sandstone, and in others a sort of 

 limestone and dolomite. At one place he saw exposed on the shores of the lake 

 large masses of coal. Passing down to the south end of the lake, he found it 

 regularly emljedded in cliffs 500 to 600 feet high, with waterfalls discharging 

 themselves down the face. 



Travelling ahmg the side of the lake he came to the Lukogo, a large river more 

 than a mile wide, but partly closed by a sort of sill on which a floating vegetation 

 was growing, a clear passage, however, being left of about 800 yards. After pro- 

 ceeding some four miles up the river, the author's boat got jammed amongst the 

 floating vegetation which grows to the thiclmess of two or three feet, and it wa.s 

 witli difficulty the boat was extricated. The Kasongo country was next reached, 

 the principal characteristic of which was the extraordinary trees, of which boats 

 a fathom wide are sometimes made. Crossing the mountains of Bambara he 

 arrived at Mamyuemba. Here he found the race entirelv different from any thing 

 1876. ' ' 17 



