1881.] Geography and Travels. 925 
expended on it. Having traversed it five times already, M. de 
Brazza is able to speak confidently on the subject. The country 
is not wooded and the vegetation is sparse, the hills have a gen- 
tle slope and a wheeled vehicle could pass everywhere.” 
“M de Brazza justly prides himself on having been able to 
accomplish, without violence of any sort, the total abolition of 
the slave trade in the basin of the Ogowé. Franceville has 
already become a place of refuge for escaped slaves, and M. de 
Brazza states that all the tribes along the river recognize this 
right of asylum and admit that all slaves who place themselves 
under his protection are thereby made free,” He speaks dis- 
couragingly of Mr. Stanley’s operations, believing that his road 
on the north bank of the Congo will never become a practicable 
highway. “Ina former geological age an immense plateau, at 
an elevation of more than 2000 feet above the level of the sea, 
Separ.ited the Upper Congo from the Atlantic; the river wore a 
bed for itself through this plateau, which at last, by the action of 
constant and continuous drainage, became furrowed into as many 
valleys as there were torrents rushing down into the great river. 
In following the line of the Congo, therefore, it becomes neces- 
sary to cross all these chains of mountains, which are the remains 
of the ancient plateau.” * * * * “By the line of the 
Ogowé, the river is made use of as far as it is navigable for 
canoes, from which point it is but forty or forty five miles through 
al easy country to a point where the Alima is navigable for steam 
vessels. On this line, too, labor and provisions are drawn from 
the country itself, while on the Congo nothing but rocks and dry 
grass are to be found. Not only are the men of Mr. Stanley's 
€xpedition fed on rice from Europe transported on the backs of 
porters and mules, but the animals themselves are fed on hay and 
Oats obtained from Europe at heavy cost.’ Mr. Stanley is com- 
out any works between Franceville and the coast as well as be- 
tween the Ogowé and the Alima, and this essential difference 
between the two routes is due to the Ogowé region being well 
peopled and the country fertile and new to European mer- 
chandise.” 
The French Government has organized another expedition, 
supplied with steam launches, to ascend the Ogoweé to assist M. 
_ de Brazza, which, at last advices, had arrived on the coast. 
