i^^g-l Geography and Travel. 431 
The soil of Nuhuroa and the other islands is coral with a little 
quartz. Nuhuroa contains the only perennial stream, which 
is voluminous, singularly fresh, and rises in the centre of the 
island, so that the writers suppose that a subterranean basin, 
fed from springs on Great Ke or even in New Guinea, must 
exist. The population of the group in 1870 was 21,000 but 
small-pox reduced it in 188 [to 19,456. The greater part of 
the people reside in Nuhujund. About a third are Mahome- 
tans. The group belongs to Holland, but is in the hands of 
a German Colonizing Society. 
Africa.— The Bashilange.— Lieut. H. Wissmann has 
published in Petermanns Mitteihingen (xii. 1888) a short 
monograph of the people known as the Bashilangi who 
number in all about 1,400,000, ar>d inhabit the country be- 
tween the Kasi, and the Lubi, and affluent of the Sankura. 
These Bashilangi are the product of the mixture of the an- 
cient people, of the district with the invading Baluba, who 
came from the S. E. They are divided into four tribes, the 
Bashilamboa, about 560,000 strong, who occupy the western 
third of the territory ; the Bashilambembele, 420,000 strong ; 
the Bashilacassanga to the S. number 280,000 ; and the Bena 
Luntu northwards, 40,000. With the exception of the Bena 
Luntu, who are real savages, and live in family aggregations, 
the Bashilange are grouped in towns, and by the efforts of 
Calamba Mukengke, new head chief, have acquired a certain 
degree of civilization. Their country is about twice the size 
of Sicily, is well watered, and not very mountainous. 
Burma and Manipur. — Col. R. G. Woodthorpe has for- 
warded the Royal Geographical Society of London an ac- 
count of his work in and around the little known district of 
Manipur, where 2,800 square miles were triangulated by his 
surveyor, Mr. Ogle. The Brahmaputra at this part of its 
course flows generally parallel to the hills which separate, 
hrst, Assam from Cackar, and then Assam from Burma. 
Hiese hills, increasing in height, finally culminate in lofty 
peaks, which singularly enough, are not on the main range, 
out upon spurs running out from it. Saramethe, the loftiest 
of these, rises to 13,000 feet. Toward the south these hill 
f^'^ngcs part IVLmipur from the Lushai country, and then sepa- 
■■ate P>urma from Chittagoriq. Northeast, as faras the Patkoi 
1 ass the>- form the watershed between Assam and Burma. 
Heyond Savamethi the peaks gradually diminish in height to 
Maium Peak, which is onlv 7,000 feet. Here a drop ol 3,000 
lect occurs, the ran<Te narrows, and the Patkoi Pass offers a 
