Geography of the Gaboon. 
59 
marching journeys are nearly sure to end in ul¬ 
cerated feet, as was the case with poor Dr. Living¬ 
stone. The rains drench the country till the latter 
end of December, when the Nanga or “ little dries” 
set in for two months. The latter also are not 
unbroken by storms and showers, and they end 
with tornadoes, which this year (1862) have been 
unusually frequent and violent. Thus we may 
distribute the twelve months into six of rains, 
vernal and autumnal, and six of dry weather, 
sestival and hibernal : the following table will 
show the sub-sections :— 
Early December to early February, the “little 
dries;” February to early April, the “former,” 
early or spring rains; May to early June, the vari¬ 
able weather; June to early September, the Ca- 
cimbo, Enomo, long or middle dries ; September 
to early December, the “ latter rains.” 
Under such media the disease, par excellence , 
of the Gaboon is the paroxysm which is va¬ 
riously called Coast, African, Guinea, and Bul- 
lom fever. Dr. Ford, who has written a useful 
treatise upon the subject, 1 finds hebdomadal peri- 
1 “ Observations on the Fevers of the West African'Coast.” 
New York: Jenkins, 1856. A more valuable work is the “Medi¬ 
cal Topography, &c. of West Africa,” by the late W. F. Daniell, 
M.D., 1849. Finally, Mr. Consul Hutchinson offered valuable 
suggestions in his work on the Niger Expedition of 1854-5 
(Longmans, 1855, and republished in the “ Traveller’s Library”). 
