1885. ] Geography ana Traveis, 697 
graphical Society of Paris, states that his strongest impression is 
the state of extreme misery in which the natives live, a misery 
due partly to their own laziness, but partly to the sterility of the 
soil. The harvest is in June, but in three months the crop is 
consumed, and during the rest of the year they live on wild 
honey, roots, fungi and wild fruits. At this season the paths are 
strewn with corpses. M. Giraud believes that the population is 
always decreasing. The only two metals found were iron and 
copper. It must be remembered that M. Giraud had a most dis- 
couraging experience. 
Recent Acquisitions of Spain. —Spain has Lappe acquired a 
siderable territory in Africa, comprising the west coast of the 
Sahara between Cape Bogador (20° g’ N.) a Cape Blanco (20° 
45’ N.), both included; and in the Gulf of Guinea the coast line 
from the Muni river, which forms the northern boundary of the 
French possessions on the Gaboon, to the Rio Campo (0° 43’ to 
2° 41’ N.). Six stations have already been established on 
the Sahara coast, and all points giving access to shipping will be 
permanently occupied, Old treaties with the chiefs on the Rio 
enito have been renewed, with a view to prevent the threatened 
advance of the French in that direction. 
The Kingdom of the Congo.—The limits of the new “ Kingdom 
of the Congo,” as recognized by the late Berlin conference, appear 
to be as follows: On the Atlantic seaboard from Banana point 
to Yabé (5° 45’ S. lat.), then by one parallel of Yabé to the mer- 
idian of Ponta da Lenha, by this meridian north to the Chiloango, 
then to the source of that river, thence to the Mtombo-Mataca 
falls of the eongo, leaving to the French the station of Mboco, but 
reserving Mucumbi and Manyanga, then along the Congo to its 
confluence with ‘the Bumba beyond the equator, where the boun- 
dary running north-west remains to be determined. The south- 
ern frontier follows the Congo from Banana to a point a little 
above Nokki, the south bank belonging to Portugal, then on the 
parallel of Nokki to the Qwango, along this river to about 9° S. lat., 
and thence in a diagonal line across the continent to Lake Ban 
eolo. Eastwards the boundary coincides with the West coast 
of lakes Bangweolo, Tanganyika, Muta-Nzighe and Albert Ny- 
anza. Within these limits the new State will have an approxi- 
mate area of 1,000,000 square miles and a population of probably 
40,000,000, mostly of Bantu speech and Negro or Negroid 
stock. 
The Red Sea Coast-—Sir R. W. Rawson (Proc. Roy. Geog. Soc., 
Feb., 1885) mica ps aca a long and learned article upon “ Euro- 
pean Territorial claims on the coast of the Red sea and its south- 
ern approaches.” oc a in the history of Abyssinia are 
given, and the grounds of the variou poe discu The 
runcated triangle of ae ee between pases and the Rèd sea 
