Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/279

 and Maryland. Until 1860 the last mentioned was a free Negro colony, forming a separate republic under the patronage of a Baltimore society. But since its union with Liberia it is administered by a "superintendent," who is charged with the duty of gradually assimilating the local institutions to those of the other counties. These are again subdivided into townships, defined, as in the United States, by geometrical lines, and each averaging 3 square miles in extent.

East of Cape Palmas the coast-line develops a curve of surprising regularity stretching for 370 miles eastward to Cape Three Points. The greater part of this gently curved seaboard takes the name of the Ivory Coast, and also that of

the Leeward, in contradistinction to the Windward Coast, exposed to the fury of the Atlantic storms. It is divided by no prominent natural landmarks into distinct regions, nor have the political frontiers been accurately drawn till quite recently, to indicate the extent of territory appropriated by France. This territory, which extends for a still undetermined distance inland, presents a coast-line of about 130 miles.

The rest of the seaboard, stretching for 120 miles between the San-Pedro and