Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/239

 THE SOUTH SENEGAMBIAN EIYEES. I9I been frequented since the fifteenth century, and English, Portuguese, and German factories established at various points. But the trade is chiefly in the hands of the French, whose political suzerainty over all the coastlands and river basins has been recognised by recent conventions. Yet this territory can scarcely be described as a colonial possession, beino- utilised only fur trading purposes, and seldom visited by merchants except durino- the fis-e months from December to April, for the purchase of oil- seeds, sesame, caoutchouc, gums, wax, skins, gold dust, and other produce. But, notwithstanding its great fertility and boundless resources, the whole region is very little known, except in the Xuiiez and Scarcies basins. The lower courses are still doubtful of the rivers whose sources have been discovered in the Futa-Jallon uplands. 'Nor is it easy to determine the extent of the territory assigned to France, which, however, at an average depth of about 120 miles between the seaboard and Futa-Jallon, may be roughly estimated at 24,000 square miles. The native popu- lation being relatively dense on the coastlands, may be rated at not less than two hundred thousand. The petty states of Koba and Kobitai, on the Sangarea estuary, have alone over thirty thousand inhabitants. Like the Portuguese Guine, the whole seaboard is broken into peninsular for- mations, which, at high water, are converted into a labyrinth of islets. But the estuaries seldom penetrate far inland, as the ground here rises somewhat rapidly towards the Futa-Jallon highlands. The northernmost stream, known at its mouth as the Componi (Campuni), and higher up as the Cogon, sends down a con- siderable volume, which in the estuary ramifies into several branches. One of these encloses on the west the island of Tristam, which is the first French territory on this seaboard, and which still bears the name of the Portuguese navigator, Nuno Tristam, who discovered it in 1445. The Rio Nunez (Nunez), the Nuno of the Portuguese, is also named from the same mariner who first explored it, and here perished in a conflict with the natives. The Kakundi, as it is locally called, is less copious than the Componi, but of more commercial value, being unobstructed by any bar, and accessible to large vessels for about 40 miles inland. Here the tides, the highest on the coast, rise to over 20 feet high, and rush at times with a velocity of 5 or 6 miles an hour far up the estuary. South of the Nunez follows the Katako, of difficult access, and some 60 miles farther on the Pio Pongo (Pongos, Pongas) whose headstreams have their source in the south western valleys of Futa-Jallon. Its estuary ramifies into numerous secondary branches, developing for a space of 15 miles an extremely intricate system of channels navigable at high water. But the bar is most dangerous on this coast, and during the floods the ebb tide rushes down at the rate of 8 or 9 miles an hour, which seems to imply a considerable discharge. But, judging from its upper course, a still more copious stream is the Kakriman (Kakrima), which has its source in the same uplands as the Gambia, Pio-Grande, and Senegal. Where it was crossed by Olivier, 1,400 feet above sea-level, its discharge was at least 1,800 cubic feet per second, and it cannot be forded even