698 General Notes. | July, 
does not seem to have ever been practically in the hands of 
Abyssinia, and the rule of Turkey and Egypt has been nominal. 
According to the “ Geographie Universelle,” of Reclus, the area 
of this tract is about 54,000 square miles, and its population about 
00,000. It is practically a desert, and its inhabitants are the 
nomad Danakil and other similar tribes. There is very little 
water, the chief river being the Hawash, which runs into lake 
Aussa, and then forms a brackish lake called Abhebad, about 
sixty-five miles from Tajura. The stream issuing from this lake 
fails to reach the sea, and terminates thirty-six miles from Tajura. 
Obock, the French possession outside the straits of Bab-el-Man- 
deb, has sixty-two miles of coast, and an area of 1470 square miles. 
It has not as yet any attraction for settlers, since it is without 
water, cattle, or vegetables. The first can, however, be procured 
from the Hawash basin, and cattle can be brought from Somali- 
land. The real drawbacks are the situation and character of the 
harbor and its position fifty or sixty miles from the route to India 
and the East. Sagallo, thirty-seven miles from Obock, has also 
been ceded to France by the local sultan. This place lies on the 
road from Ankober, the capital of Shoa, to Tajura, the chief place 
of export of King Menelik’s country. King Menelik, according 
to M. Bramond, dreams of railroads through his dominions, and 
of steamers on the Hawash to Lake Aussa. 
The territory of Assab, now in the hands of Italy, includes the 
bay of that name, with all its islands and the coast line from Ras 
Darmah, the eastern point of the Bay of Beilul, in N. lat. 13° 14’ 
to Ras Sintiyar, the south-east point of the Bay of Assab, in N. 
lat. 12° 53’. The belt of territory purchased from the local sul- 
n by Italy is from two to six miles wide and thirty-five miles 
ong. 
African News.—From the remarks of Mr. J. M. Cook, who has 
recently returned from Dongola, it appears that the cataracts of 
the Nile are not correctly placed upon the map. The so-called 
third cataract at Hannek is no cataract at all, only a very small 
rapid. Between the second and so-called third cataracts four or five 
cataracts occur, and these explain the delay in the concentration 
of the British troops at Dongola. From Sarras to Sakarmatta 
(seventy-four miles), the rise was 450 feet. A fresh expedition 
in Somali-land has been undertaken by Messrs. F. L. and W. D. 
James, who writes from Berbera that they intend to traverse the 
r Gerhajis’s country to Lebiholii, whence five days over the 
desert will bring them to Ogaden. They have a guard of seven- 
teen Somalis collected at Aden. The map of Africa, on a scale of 
~ twenty-seven geographical miles to the inch, in course of publica- 
-~ tion by the Depét de la Guerre, will consist of sixty sheets, Twenty- 
- four of these have ‘been published, eighteen of West and Central 
_ Africa, six of South Africa and Cape Colony. Sheet 9 shows the 
a Canaries and the sterile country called by Dr. Barth “ Tiris el Ferar,” 
