Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/280

 230 WEST AFRICA. Lahu rivers, is one of the few sections of the continental periphery which has not yet been claimed by any European power. The western section of the Ivory Coast is also one of the least explored in the whole of Africa. Apart from the seaboard and the summits of the hills visible from the shore, nothing of this region is known except the names of some tribes and towns. The dark curtain of forest trees has not yet been raised. Yet few other countries reserve more inte- resting revelations for travellers. Due north were formerly supposed to lie the culminating points of the so-called Kong Mountains, figured on our maps from vague reports, but which would appear to form a comparatively low waterparting between the coast streams and the Niger basin. The western and still independent section of the Ivory Coast is the most elevated, and here the Sassandra (Saint Andrew) hills attain an extreme altitude of 980 feet. Farther on, Mount Langdon and the Sisters rise to- elevations of 360 and 390 feet respectively. Most of the cliffs appear to be of sandstone formation, and the streams here reaching the coast are said by the natives to traverse a large inland lagoon called Gle. The Lahu River, which now marks the western limit of the French possessions, seems to be of considerable length, and evidently rises in the uplands of the interior. It sends down a large volume, and enters the sea through three arms with intervening wooded islands. But the bars are so dan- gerous that they cannot be crossed even by canoes. Here the submarine bank stretches for a considerable distance seawards everywhere except at Little Bassam Bay, that is, the point where the arc developed by the Ivory Coast reaches its extreme northern convexity. An extremely deep trough or ditch, Ij mile wide, opens normally with the shore-line between the two submerged banks, which slope gently seawards. At 4 J miles off the coast the Little Ba-sani " ditch " has a depth of 1,600 feet ; at a third of a mile 600, and close in shore 120 feet. This submarine valley resembles the so-called " Gouf " near the south-east angle of the Bay of Biscay. Before reaching the sea the Lahu spreads out westwards in an island-studded lagoon separated from the Atlantic by a narrow strip of land. But east of the river this lagoon formation acquires far greater proportions. For a space of over 130 miles between the Lahu and the Tanwe there is, so to say, a double shore-line, the outer or seaward beach running in an almost straight line for an interminable distance west and east between the foam of the breakers and the verdant forests. The inner or continental line is broken by creeks and secondary inlets, presenting a labyrinth of approaches to the rivers of the interior. The Ebrie lagoon, forming the western section of this system of inland waters, comprises a multitude of channels, passages, isles, islets, and banks, stretching for 70 miles parallel with the coast, and navigable at all seasons for boats drawing 2J feet. The Akba or Comoe, largest of its affluents, and said to be 240 miles long, enters the lagoon at its east end, where it pierces the outer coast-line to reach the sea. During the floods it has a velocity of from 8 to 9 miles an hour, and its alluvia causes the bar to silt up to such an extent that vessels draAving 10 feet are unable to enter the lagoon. But at other times the bar is easily crossed, and the Great