Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/313

 THE SLAVE COAST. 257 Benin. In 1863 France purchased the territory of Porto-Novo, which was soon after abandoned, and again occupied by her in 188^. Next year the Germans took possession of the Togo district immediately east of the British territory on the Gold Coast, so that at present this seaboard is shared by four Powers, including Portugal, which administers the part of the coast still claimed by the King of Dahomey; but towards the interior the limits of the respective territories are nowhere accurately determined. Few travellers have ever penetrated far into this region, except towards the east in the direction of the Niger, where the routes of explorers intersect each other at several points. The natural limits of the country are clearly indicated on the west by Cape St. Paul and the lagoons fed by the waters of the Volta, on the north-west and north by the uplands which form a continuation of the Akwapem ranges, on the north-east and east by the divide between the Niger basin and the streams flowing to the Atlantic. The whole region may be approximately estimated at about 62,000 square miles, with a total population of probably not less than three millions. But no trustworthy returns have yet been made except for the British possessions of Lagos and Badagry, which in an area of 75 square miles had a settled population of over seventy-five thousand. Physical Features. — Rivers. From the sea no hills are anywhere visible beyond the slight pyramidal eminence at Badagr3^ Large timber is also rare, nor are any dunes developed on this coast, owing doubtless to the north-east winds, which carry seawards the sands washed up by the waves. But in the interior, beyond the intricate coast lagoons, the land rolls away in gentle undulations from 200 to 230 feet high in the direction of the inland plateaux. North of the isolated mass, 2,700 feet high, forming the culminating point of Dahomey, the Busso ranges rise to considerable altitudes, according to Skertchley terminating in the Mahi country with peaks over 6,700 feet high, falling rapidly towards the northern steppes, and descending in terraces on the southern side. From a summit ascended by this explorer the range, apparently the highest in Africa south of the Atlas and west of Abyssinia, was distinctly seen stretching away in the direction of the Yolta. Some of the chief crests consist of granitic domes, some of columnar basalt pyramids, and others again of trap formations piled up like frowning fortresses or else resembling isolated craters. In one of the valleys were seen accumulations of debris present- ing all the characters of moraines, and here were also noticed rocks striated by ice. (Skertchley, Dahomey as It Is.) None of the streams flowing seawards between the Volta and the Niger are of large size, their parallel basins being everywhere confined within narrow limits. During the dry season most of them fail to reach the sea, discharging into the coast lagoons without being able to force a passage through the intervening beach. But after the rains the overflow of the lagoons finds an exit, breaking the shore- line now at one point now at another. The channel at Lagos, forming the outlet