September 27, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



THE CAMEROONS DISTRICT OF WEST AFRICA. 



At a meeting of the Geographical Society of Berlin, July 6, 1889, 

 Capt. Kund gave a brief rhumd of the results of the two expedi- 

 tions led by him into the country lying inland from the Batanga 

 coast, in the Cameroons district of West Africa, which is reported 

 in the " Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society." The 

 opposition which the coast population offered to the entry of the 

 expedition was only passive, but nevertheless very irritating. All 

 kinds of stratagems, lies, deceits, and false directions as to routes — 

 of course to no purpose — were tried by them. It was owing to the 

 calumnious reports spread by the inhabitants of the coast, that the 

 expedition, as it penetrated farther into the interior, encountered 

 hostility from the natives, who, made uneasy by the reports con- 

 veyed to them by traders from the coast, became fearful, as the 

 white men approached, for their wives and stores of ivory. 



The violent attack made upon the expedition by the Bekok, on 

 the first return to the coast in the spring of 188S, rendered it abso- 

 lutely necessary, in order that the prestige of the white man in 

 these regions should be maintained, for the party to return again 

 as soon as possible to that part of the country ; for the news had 

 spread far and wide that the natives had suceeded in killing the 

 white men, and in destroying the expedition. The re-appearance 

 of the supposed dead men was consequently a great moral success, 

 and the second advance presented hardly any difficulties. Among 

 many tribes the expedition was even received with songs and 

 dances, and everywhere the suspicion that the expedition had come 

 for the purpose of taking vengeance quickly disappeared. Capt. 

 Kund, on this occasion, announced most emphatically that nothing 

 was further from his intentions than to take any unfair advantage 

 of the natives, that he had left no stone unturned in order to con- 

 vince them of his peaceable intentions, and that the first shot had 

 never been fired from his side. It was continually the want of in- 

 terpreters which caused the complication? in which on different 

 occasions he became involved with the natives. 



Although the second journey resulted in little that is new from a 

 geographical point of view, inasmuch as the route followed differed 

 in unimportant points from that taken on the first occasion, still 

 the detailed knowledge of the country was considerably increased, 

 and a much more complete insight into the ethnographical condi- 

 tions of the region was obtained. Thus the expedition became 

 acquainted with a race of people, which, on the first journey, had 

 remained quite unknown. The inhabitants of the primeval-forest 

 region are of remarkably small stature, although not dwarfs, and 

 are yellow-skinned. They roam through the forests without hav- 

 ing any fixed abodes, and live by the chase. These people appear 

 to represent the aborigines of the country, who were the first to 

 make paths in the virgin forest. They call themselves the Bojaeli, 

 but are named Baiiea by the other tribes. They kill elephants 

 with spears, and possess extraordinary skill in finding their way 

 through the dense forest. 



• The ethnographical features of the southern Cameroons territory, 

 between the Sannaga and the Campo, are, according to the present 

 state of our knowledge, as follows. Between the Sannaga and the 

 Njong dwell the important group of the Mvelle (Bakoko), who are 

 very unequally distributed through the region of primeval forest as 

 far as the coast range of mountains. The coast itself is here un- 

 inhabited. South of the Njong, the Banoko and Bapuko (the so- 

 called Batanga people) live on the coast. They have probably 

 come here from the north. In the rear of them dwell the Kasjua, 

 called by the Batanga people Mabea. They belong to another 

 race, and have probably immigrated from the south. The inhabited 

 part of the coast is, with the exception of the banks of the Njong 

 and Lokundje, where narrow belts of population — on the former 

 the Bakoko, and on the latter the Kasjua and Bakoko intermingled 

 — extend into the interior, nowhere broader than about nine miles. 

 Then follows the uninhabited region of primeval forest, about one 

 hundred and twenty miles broad, in which only the Bojaeli live. In 

 the valleys of the first steep mountain-range the Ngumba live. 

 They call themselves Mavumba, and are closely related to the 

 Kasjua, having probably in the same way immigrated hither from 

 the south. In the north they border at the Lokendje River, on the 

 Batoko ; in the south, on the Bulei. The latter belong to the Fang 



group, and have pushed their way along the right bank of the 

 Ntembe (Campo River) almost as far as the coast. They embitter 

 the lives of the Ngumba people by constant attacks. East of the 

 Ngumba territory, the country for a stretch of about forty-five 

 miles is again uninhabited, and it is there that the second steep 

 ascent to the great plateau of the interior of Africa commences. 

 The plateau itself is extraordinarily densely populated, and by 

 people closely related in their language to the Fang (Mpangwe, the 

 Fans of Du Chaillu) on the Ogowe. Some porters belonging to 

 the latter race accompanied the expedition, and they very quickly 

 learned to make themselves understood by the people of the plateau. 

 The sequence of tribes from the left bank of the Sannaga is as 

 follows : the Jetoni, Botinga, KoUe, Jetudi, Jeundo, Bane, Tinga, 

 Baba, Janguana, and Bulei in the south. The Jeundo and Tinga 

 are distinguished in the most favorable manner from the peoples 

 living farther west. They are of remarkably tall and slim stature, 

 are well nourished, and thoroughly healthy. Their features are, in 

 the case of both sexes, extraordinarily regular. They have a marked 

 tendency to harmless gayety and dancing. The men wear round 

 the loins a piece of bark cloth. It is peculiar that the women for 

 covering their back parts use large bunches of grass threads colored 

 red-brown, while their front parts are barely concealed by a banana- 

 leaf. In the midst of this interesting people, at a point situated 

 about 3° 48' north latitude and about 12° east longitude, and close 

 on the boundary line between the Bantu and Sudan negroes, the 

 expedition erected their station, at which Lieut. Tappenbeck is at 

 the present time stopping alone. 



SPRAYING WITH THE ARSENITES.' 

 Nine years ago, at the first meeting of this society, I presented 

 a paper upon the use of Paris-green as a specific against the cod- 

 ling-moth. In that paper I gave the results of careful and elabo- 

 rate experiments, which settled two facts which were very impor- 

 tant in economic entomology, — first, that Paris-green was efficient 

 as a preventive of the ravages of the codling-larva ; and, second, 

 that such use was entirely safe in respect to poisoning the fruit. 

 To-day, less than a decade from the date of the discovery of this 

 remedy, this method to combat the worst insect-pest of the apple- 

 grower, is generally adopted by the more intelligent orchardists of 

 our country. Its value is now universally conceded. Easy and 

 cheap methods to apply the insecticide are now known and gener- 

 ally adopted. 



For several years myself and others have been experimenting, in 

 hopes to find that this same insecticide was equally efficient to de- 

 stroy the plum curculio. For six or seven years I have sprayed 

 plum-trees once, and even twice, with no apparent good. Test- 

 trees close beside the trees sprayed, and that were not treated, were 

 as free from attack as were the trees that were sprayed, and the 

 trees treated were no more exempt from attack than the others. 

 Thus I was convinced that this insecticide was of no value in this 

 curculio warfare. Several of my horticultural friends, in whose 

 ability to experiment and observe correctly I had great confidence, 

 had tried this remedy with very satisfactory results. In 1888 I 

 studied this matter very closely, and concluded that as the plum is 

 a smooth fruit, with no calyx-cup, like that of the apple, in which 

 the poison may lodge, and as the curculio lays its egg anywhere on 

 the smooth rind, the poison would be very easily washed off, or 

 even blown off by the wind. I thus concluded that my want of 

 success was very likely due to a want of thoroughness. In 1888 I 

 sprayed certain trees three times at intervals of eight days, and 

 omitted to treat other trees close alongside. The benefit from 

 spraying was very marked. 



I also found that carbolized plaster (one pint of crude carbolic 

 acid ito fifty pounds of plaster) was quite as efficient to repel the 

 curculio as was the arsenites. This was also applied three times. 

 The season was very dry, and there were few or no rains to wash 

 off the insecticides. This year I repeated the experiments both 

 with the London-purple and with the carbolized plaster, but with 

 no success. All the trees were severely attacked, and all the,plums 

 lost. This year we had almost daily rains, which were frequently 

 quite severe. 



1 Abstract of a paper by A. J. Cook, read at Toronto, Aug. 26, before the Society 

 for the Promotion of Agricultural Science. 



