924 General Notes. [ November, 
name Afpterodon gaudryi. Dr. H. G. Seeley: has recently re- 
examined the vertebrate fossils found at Neue Welt, near Vienna, 
and has made a number of important rectifications in the deter- 
minations, 
GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVELS! 
THE Ocowé anp Conco Routes to STANLEY Poot. — The 
Royal Geographical Society’s Proceedings, for August, gives 
some interesting details concerning M. de Brazza’s expedition up 
the Ogowé. The ulterior object of this expedition was to open 
a route from the Ogowé to the Congo above the cataracts, and 
launch steam vessels on the navigable part of the latter stream. 
“ The station founded at Ntamo [Stanley Pool] is intended as the 
Starting point of the steam vessels which are shortly to be placed 
on the Congo, while that on the Passa affluent of the Upper 
Ogowé is the nearest point to the Congo which could be placed 
in direct communication by water with the Atlantic Ocean, some 
435 miles distant. On his first expedition it took M. de Brazza 
two whole years to reach the Passa, which was previously un- 
known, and the obstacles to free commercial intercourse on the 
Ogowé were great, as the river was divided into three distinct 
sections, held respectively by the Inenga and Galoa tribes, the 
Okandas, and lastly the Adumas, each of whom exercised absolute 
control over their own section, so that three changes of porters 
and canoes were necessary, and the value of merchandise was 
thus enormously enhanced. But during his last journey M. de 
Brazza put an end to this arrangement which had existed from 
time immemorial, and made the navigation of the river free as far 
as Franceville, his station on the Passa. With regard to the 180 
miles of land journey thence to Ntamo on the Congo, porters 
will be found as easily along the road as on the banks of the 
Ogowé, for the population is very dense and peaceable, and the 
surface of the country presents no serious difficulty ; indeed ha 
it not for some obstacles in the first three days’ march, a wheele 
vehicle might pass along the road without any preliminary pee 
being necessary. The country, moreover, is very healthy, as d 
consists of a plateau at an elevation of 2625 feet, and this altitude 
affects the vegetation beneficially, so that the banana and maize 
flourish there. But this line of land communication from one 
. Edited by Extis H. YARNALL, Philadelphia. 
