Geography of the Land. . 35 
value. Perhaps the best summary of the more important discov- 
eries can be given in the explorer’s own words, which I have 
taken from one of his recent letters : 
‘Over and above the happy ending of our appointed duties we have 
“not been unfortunatein geographical discoveries. The Aruwimi is now 
known from its source to its bourne. The great Congo forest, covering 
as large an area as France and the Iberian peninsula, we can now cer- 
tify to be an absolute fact. The Mountains of the Moon, this time 
beyond the least doubt, have been located, and Ruwenzori, ‘ The Cloud 
King,’ robed in eternal snow, has been seen and its flanks explored and 
some of its shoulders ascended, Mounts Gordon Bennett and MacKin- 
nan Cones being but great sentries warding off the approach to the 
inner area of ‘The Cloud King.’ 
“On the southeast of the range the connection between Albert 
Edward Nyanza and the Albert Nyanza has been discovered, and the 
extent of the former lake is now known for the first time. Range after 
range of mountains has been traversed, separated by such tracts of pas- 
ture lands as would make your cowboys out west mad with envy. 
And right under the burning equator we have fed on blackberries and 
bilberries and quenched our thirst with crystal water fresh from snow 
beds. We have also been able to add nearly six thousand square miles 
of water to Victoria Nyanza. 
Our naturalist will expatiate upon the new species of animals, birds 
and plants he has discovered. Our surgeon will tell what he knows of 
the climate and its amenities. It will take us all we know how to say 
what new store of knowledge has been gathered from this unexpected 
field of discoveries. I always suspected that in the central regions, 
between the equatorial lakes, something worth seeing would be found, 
but I was not prepared for such a harvest of new facts.” 
The exploration of Africa, however, has not been confined to 
the central belt. Expeditions have been developing the southern 
section of the continent ; the French have been active in the 
watershed of the Niger, and in the east there seems to have 
been a general advance of English, Germans, Portuguese and 
Italians. The latter, it is stated, have acquired several million 
square miles of territory in Mozambique, an acquisition that 
would indicate our maps have heretofore given this particular 
division of territory an area much too insignificant. 
We also learn that Capt, Trevier, a French traveler, has 
crossed the continent by ascending the Congo to Stanley Falls, 
thence southeasterly through the lake region to the coast at some 
point in Mozambique, in a journey of eighteen months; a 
journey that must bring us a harvest of new facts. 
