182 REPORT — 1876. 



he had yet seen. The houses were differently built, the people were differently^ 

 armed, dressed their head differently, and there was no tattooing to speak of. The 

 villages were built in king streets thirty or forty yards wide, two or three streets 

 being alongside each other, and a space left between the houses, which were of 

 reddish clay, with sloping thatched roof — the only houses of that description he saw 

 in the interior of the country. All the Mamyuembans are cannibals. Journeying- 

 northwards, but still in Mamyueniba, a district was reached where iron was very 

 plentiful, and where large forges were at work. Many of the spears and knives 

 which they turned out looked as if finished oft" by a file or polished by some means, 

 although all done by hand-forging and patient labour. The Lualaba River was 

 next reached, which is about 1800 yards in breadth. The southern shore is occu- 

 pied by a tribe called the Wagenga, who do the whole carrying business of the 

 river, being the only canoe proprietors, who take for pay the products of the 

 country to the different markets. The young women make immense quantities of 

 pottery in the mud and back water, which they exchange for fish. 



After referring to a coimtry between Ny wangi and Loami, where a palm-oil gi-ows 

 in great profusion, the author said that he traversed Kilemba, and reached Lake 

 Kigongo. This lake is covered with floating vegetation, on which the people 

 build their houses, cut a space round about them, and so transform their habita- 

 tions into floating islands, so that when desirable they change the locality from 

 one place to another. Coming to the coast he passed through one of the most 

 magnificent countries in the world to look at, possessing a climate in which any 

 European might live. The Portuguese had been settled in this neighbourhood for 

 thirty years. The whole of this country was just one vast slave-field. In the 

 country there was a vast mineral wealth and an ordinary population that, witli 

 education, might be rendered very industrious instead of carrymg on a continual 

 warfare against each other for the purpose of obtaining slaves. 



On his Recent Exphrations in N.W. New Guinea. 

 By Signor G. E. Ceretjti. 



After several visits to the islands and part of the mainland on the north, the author 

 was in 1869 sent out by Count Menabrea for the purpose of malring investigations 

 preliminary to the formation in New Guinea of a penal settlement ; he secured at the 

 same time means for turning his expedition to profit geographically. He believed 

 that a great part of the region from the Xulla Islands to New Guinea, and perhaps 

 more to the north, had been subject to very important volcanic action in an epoch 

 not vei-y far distant ; and one could see the work now going on, the western coast 

 showing gradual subsidence. But whatever the origin of the islands, they were 

 now covered with a vegetation which he had not found equalled in luxuriance in 

 any part of the world. He urged in strong terms the colonization of New Guinea. 



Observations on the White Nile between Oondohoro and Appuddo. 

 By Lieut. "W. H. Chippindall, E.E. 



On Peralc and Salanrjore. By W. Baeeington D'Almeida, 



Observations on the Conventional Division of Time noiv in use, and its Dis- 

 advantages in connexion with Steam Communications in different parts of 

 the World; iviih Jicmarhs on the desirability of adopting Common Time 

 over the Globe for Eaihvays and Steam-Ships. By Sandfoed Fleming. 



On the Site of the Grave of Genghiz Khan. By Professor Foebes. 



