1884. | Geography and Travels. 55 
of the natives. The Wabuma, a stream at its mouth as wide as 
the Thames at Westminster, flows, according to Stanley, out of 
a lake seventy miles long (Lake Leopold II), runs for a great part 
of its course nearly parallel with the Congo, then bends away 
and broadens greatly, and finally contracts at its mouth. The 
Quango is probably an affluent of the Wabuma. The Bayansi 
village at the junction of Wabuma and the Congo has compact, 
tidy-locking houses, some containing three rooms. 
The principal tribes between Bólóbó and Stanley pool are the 
Batéké, the Bayansi, and the Wabuma. All seem to be compara- 
tively recentarrivals. The first are resident colonists from the north- 
west, between the Ogowé and the Congo; the second come from 
the Equator and north-east, and are the great travelers and traders 
of the Upper Congo, while the third inhabit the lower course of 
the river of the same name. All are kindly, merry, and courteous 
in behavior, of splendid physical development, and possessed of 
great artistic power, as shown in the decorations (often indelicate) 
of their utensils and arms. They are fond of music, and from 
their five-stringed instruments draw many harmonies of plaintive 
tone and perfect rhythm. The languages are of the Bantu stock,, 
and that of the Wabuma is strangely guttural. All have many 
words identical with the Kaffir tongues. Zanzibaris can often 
make themselves understood. 
ASIA AND THE INDIAN ArcHIPpeLaco.—Mr. H. O. Forbes has 
returned to London after five years of wanderings. He first 
According to Mr. R. Lydekker, of the Geological Survey of 
India, the deepest by far of the Indian River valleys is that of the 
Indus below Bowanji in Gilgit. Between that place and the Darel 
district, Lt. Col. H. C. B. Tanner states that the Indus flows in a 
Narrow gorge bordered by precipices 20,000 feet in height above 
the ocean level, the level of the waters being a little over 3000 
feet, thus giving nearly 17,000 feet as the actual depth of the gorge. 
€ occurrence of river gravels and honey-combed rock surfaces 
