194 
Up the Gaboon River. 
title Mpolo. Both still require exploration; my 
friend M. Braouezzec, Lieutenant de Vaisseau, who 
made charts of the lower bed, utterly failed to 
make the sources; and the Rev. Mr. Preston, who 
lived seven months in the interior, could not 
ascend far. Mr. W. Winwood Reade reached in 
May, 1862, the rapids of the Nkomo River, but 
sore feet prevented his climbing the mountain, 
which he estimates at 2,000 feet, or of tracing the 
stream to its fountain. Mr. R. B. N. Walker 
also ascended the Nkomo for some thirty miles, 
and found it still a large bed with two fathoms of 
water in the Cacimbo or “ Middle dries.” In M. 
du Chailhfs map the Upper Nkomo is a dotted 
line ; according to all authorities, upon the higher 
and the lower river his direction is too far to the 
north-east. The good Tippet declares that he once 
canoed three miles up the Mbokwe, and then 
marched eastward for five days, covering a hundred 
miles—which is impossible. He found a line of 
detached hills, and an elevation where the dews 
were exceedingly cold ; looking towards the ut¬ 
terly unknown Orient, he could see nothing but 
a thick forest unbroken by streams. He heard 
from the country people traditions of a Great Lake, 
which may be that placed by Tuckey in north 
latitude 2 0 —3 0 . The best seasons for travel are 
said to be March and November, before and after 
the rains, which swell the water twelve feet. 
