GEOGRAPHIC NOTES 
91 
tablished. Steamers will soon be plying on the Mekong. That river has 
been found navigable for 1,500 miles. Lient. Simon, in the French gun- 
boat, La Grandi^re, steamed 900 miles, from Stnng-Treng to Lnang- 
Prabang, and reports that at high water the rapids are navigable to 
Kiang-kong, 220 miles higher up the stream. 
SiBERi,\. Last summer the veteran Arctic skipper. Captain Wiggins, 
took 400 tons of English merchandise up the Yenisei to within 180 miles 
of Yeniseisk. The Russian government admitted the goods free, so as to 
encourage navigation to Siberia by way of the Arctic ocean. 
The completion of the Trans-Siberian railway seems to be assured by 
the negotiation in Berlin of three Russian railway loans, aggregating 
$5.5,000,000. Whether Russia has secured from China authority to cross 
iManchuria to an ice-free port is yet a mooted question. 
AFRICA 
Asuanti. a telegraph line is being constructed from the coast to the 
interior, along the principal trade route. 
Egypt. A geological survey, to be completed within three years at a 
cost of £25,000, has been sanctioned by the Khedive. It will be carried 
out under the direction of Capt. Lyons, R. E. 
Abyssinia. The Italian army is con.structing a good military road 
between Adowa, Adigrat, and Makaleh. An administration is being estab- 
lished, with a view to jiromoting colonization. 
Kongo Free State. According to the statements of the Rev. John B. 
5Iurphy, an American Baptist missionary, who speaks from an experience 
of several years, the authorities of the Free State are committing shock- 
ing barbarities in connection with the exploitation of the rubber trade. 
Tlie natives, as fer as practicable, are abandoning the Belgian for French 
territory, where they are well treated. 
South Africa. Tlie delimitation of the railway stri^i on tlie eastern 
frontier of Bechuanaland is in progress, the survey being made by Colonel 
Goold-Adams. Tliis delimitation is made under an agreement with the 
native chiefs regarding the extension of tlie railway to IMatabeleland. 
Tlie railway company surrenders a subsidy of $1,000,000 for land grants, 
enhanced police powers, etc., which insures its future control of the trade 
routes to this region. The Natul-Transvaal railway is now in operation 
as far as between Durban and Heidelberg, and the section from the latter 
jioint to Johannesburg is in process of construction. The heavy spring 
rains have postponed the opening of the through railway .service from 
Natal to the Rand. The Transvaal is now served liy three lines, the 
otliers l)(*ing the Cape and Free State and the Delagoa bay. Telegraph 
communication between Cape Town and the East Coast is now continu- 
ous, through tlie opening of the line lietween Unitali and Beira. The 
necessity of concmtiiig measures to prevent the utter extinction of the 
.\frican eleiihant is again being urged. It is said that tin* Cermaiis are 
taking stejis to protect the few herds remaining in Cernian ti-rritory, and 
it is to be lioiicd that the British colonial authorities will lose no time in 
following their exanqile. 
