——— 
Pe eo eg ey meen ete 
1884.] Geography and Travels. 277 
Gardner, J. S—A monograph of the British Eocene flora. Vol. 11, Part 1. Gym- 
nospermz. Palzontographical Society, London, 1883. From the author. 
Dugés, Aif—Una Nueva Especie de Salamanquesa (Hemidactylus navarri Alf. 
Dugés). La Naturaleza, Mexico, 1883. From the author, 
Agassiz, Alex.—Report on tne Echini. Rep. on the res. of dredging in the Gulf of 
Mexico 1877-78, Caribbean sea, 187879, and Atlantic coast, U. S., 1880, by 
the U. S. Coast Surv. steamer Blaže. Mem. Mus. Comp. Zool., Vol. x, No. 1, 
Cambridge. From the author. 
SEEM yc immer: 
GENERAL NOTES. 
GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVELS.' 
Arrica—TuHE Conco, FROM its Moura to Boroso.—Mr. H. 
H. Johnstone (Proc. Roy. Geog. Soc., Dec., 1883) not only de- 
scribes the lower course of the Congo, but gives a map and details 
respecting the aspect of the western coast of South Africa gener- 
ally. The forest belt of Africa extends from Sierra Leone to the 
Ogowé, a little to the south of which it is succeeded by the park- 
like scenery so characteristic of South Africa. The thick forest 
is determined by the perpetual rains, and its absence in the 
country, which has a dry season of greater or less duration, is 
determined by the fires which, started by the natives among the 
long dry grass, sweep the forest from the hills. This well- 
timbered but open country is at first a narrow strip along the 
coast, but the boundary line soon bends to the east. The limit 
of the oil-palm (L/ais guineensis) is approximately 10° S. lat., but 
along the coast it does not stretch far south of the Congo mouth. 
A little to the south of the Congo, between Ambrizete and 
ca da Cobra, the park-like scenery begins to retreat from the 
Coast, and is followed by a region of sparse vegetation, with 
euphorbias and aloes, and occasionally baobabs, mimosas, and 
» and where there is often less than two months rain in the 
year. Patches of this kind of country, broken by timber along 
the rivers, fringe the coast as far south as Benguela, where a belt 
commences and runs far into the interior. At about the 13th 
‘Parallel this region of scanty vegetation gives way to absolute 
"sert, which is a prolongation along the south-western coast of 
the Kalahari desert, The northward trend of the Congo brings 
its course above Stanley pool into the region of forest and per- 
Petual rain, 
‘he sandy wastes between Mossamedes and Orange river 
Cow little but the strange Welwitschia and a few stunted Bauhi- 
mas, but the park-like country has the Hyphcene-palm, the oil- 
Palm, the cottonwood, the baobab, figs, mimosas, numerous 
2 the id papilionaceous trees, etc. This is also the country of 
ge game animals. The thick forest, where vegetable life 
Supreme, shelters the anthropoid apes, which thus do not 
ch within too miles of the northern bank of the Lower 
S department is edited by W. N. LOCKINGTON, Philadelphia, 
Tules 
