964 General Notes. [September, 
trictly defined. They are skillful workmen, work tolerably in — 
iron and brass, and cultivate coffee, etc. a 
Commerce is carried on both by money and exchange in kind, : 
Several Europeans are there, and one French and one Italian 
mercantile house. = 
M. Bazile Féris contributes to the Revue Scientifique a fall — 
account of the Slave Coast, part of the shore of the Gulf of — 
Guinea, on which French and British interests come into collision. 
The coast is principally a narrow strip of land between the ocean — 
and a lagoon which extends, with only two interruptions, which 2 
often disappear in the rainy season, from the River Volta, which — 
parts Dahomey from Ashantee as far as the Benin. A bar makes 
access to the coast dangerous, but lagoons, canals and rivers facili- , 
tates internal communication. The principal products are those of Y 
the oil-palm (E/eis guineensis), consisting of palm oil obtained by 
triturating the fruit, and the kernels of the fruit, from which a . 
finer oil is obtained. Most of the commerce has for a long time : 
been in the hands of the French, but in 1861 the English estab- 
lished their rule at Lagos, the principal port. The three chief a 
races and languages are those of the Minas, the Géjis and the a 
Yorubas, while the most widely spread European tongue is the ; 
Portuguese. i 
to learn whether any news of the missing ship has come, and : 
wards return to the Kara strait and search the eastern coas a 
or tree-forts, to which the inhabitants retire when pe ris the 
Ata recent meeti i ty or a : 
force of 200 men to surround the Indians ve hold 
Romanet du Caillaud, gives the popu g 
of Tong-king at more than eighteen millions. 
