GEOGRAPHIC NOTES 



^L'^. K.° 



i/oAn B Thrbert 



sliip will sail northeast, and Nansen will conduct his researches hetween Iceland 

 and Spitzbergen and endeavor to supply the missing link which will connect 

 his work on the Fram with that of earlier Norwegian and British investigators. 

 Seveu.al changes in the map of Africa were made by a convention signed 

 between France and Spain on June 2ii. In 1885 the Spanish seized the north- 

 west coast of Africa from Cajie 

 Blanco northward to al)0ut Cape 

 Jnby. They gave their new pos- 

 session the name of Rio de Oro, 

 after a bay thus christened by 

 the Portuguese in the fifteenth 

 century, though neither gold 

 nor a river were to be found 

 there. The folloAving year they 

 pushed into the interior and 

 signed a treaty with the peojile 

 of Adrar, but they did not in- 

 form the European powers of 

 the treaty. In successive years 

 Adrar was overrun bj' Fiench 

 exjilorers and thus fell under 

 French influence. By the terms 

 of the convention now con- 



clu(le<l, tlie boundary runs from ■ ^ — ■ 1 ' 



Cape Blanco in a straight line eastward to about 1.")° longitude, thence to tlie 

 northwest around Sebkha Ijil, a dry salt lake, then due east to the 12th meridian, 

 which it follows to Morocco, where it becomes indefinite, as the Ijoundary be- 

 tween Morocco and Rio de Oro is not defined. The territory in northwest 

 Africa credited on current maps to Spain is thus considerably reduced hy the 

 convention. 



Projecting into Frencli Kongo is a small bit of Spanish territory. S|)ain has 

 always claimed that her riglits exten<led further into, the interior, ahnost to 



Ubangi, but with tiie excep- 

 tion of the islands Klobey 

 and Coriscd she has never ex- 

 ercised any jurisdiction over 

 tills Ian<l. Krance has never 

 recognl/.('(l the title of Spain 

 to any of t!ic iiiairilaml, and 

 on Flench maps only the 

 islands lOlobey and Corisco 

 are given as l)elonging lo 



_ Spain. I5y the terms of the 



ni'w tii'aty, however, Spain 

 acpiires al)oiit 1, ()()() .•square niiU's, the iiorllieiii liomidarv of her possession 

 touching German Kamerun. France gains the [.livilege of purchasiiii: ihe 

 jiiece if Spain ever ilesires to be freed of it. 



