Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/451

 dominates the low-lying lands carved into peninsulas by the lateral estuaries of the Rio del Key.

RIVERS.

The Cameroons are almost completely encircled by marine or fluvial waters. On the west the broad Rio del Key estuary is joined by the Meme, whose numerous affluents rise on the Ba-Kundu plain, intermingling their sources with those of the headstreams of the Mungo, which flows to the east of the Cameroons. Near the water-parting lies the little lacustrine basin, 6 miles in circumference, to which Mr. Comber has given the name of Lake Rickards. It seems to be a flooded crater with no emissary in the dry season, and in the wet season probably sending its overflow to the Mungo.

Some 36 miles to the north-east lies the larger Balombi-ma-Mbu, or "Elephant Lake," also apparently an old crater draining to the Mungo, which here falls through a series of rapids a total height of from 70 to 80 feet. Some 12 miles below these rapids the Mungo begins to be navigable for barges, and throughout its lower course, of about 70 miles, is obstructed only by one other rapid at all dangerous. But before reaching the sea it overflows into a broad muddy plain, throwing off towards the south-west the river Bimbia, which enters the Gulf of Guinea by a wide and deep mouth accessible to the largest vessels. The main stream, which retains the name of Mungo, trends eastwards, not to the sea, but to the estuary of the Cameroons River above the bar.

The Cameroons River was ascended in 1886 by Johnston for about 60 miles from its mouth to a point where it flows south-eastwards between gneiss walls, rushing over a cataract from the terraces which here seem to form the escarp- ments of the inland plateaux. Farther down the Wuri, as the natives call it, ramifies into two branches enclosing a large island, below which it is joined by the Abo or Yabiang, which has its source near the falls of the Mungo. Where the main stream assumes the aspect of an estuary it receives several other affluents, while the numerous channels of its delta communicate on one side with the Mungo, on the other with the Lungasi.

On the coast between the Cameroons estuary and Cape Saint John several other streams reach the sea, some of which rival in volume the Mmigo and the Wuri. Most of them are interrupted near the coast by cataracts, and all are marked at their mouth by mangrove-covered or alluvial banks, which under the influence of the in-shore marine current are uniformly disposed in the direction from south to north. The Edea, northernmost of these streams, and navigable by boats for 34 miles upwards, communicates by lateral channels with the Malimba and the Kwa- Kwa (Qua- Qua), besides sending two independent branches seawards. Beyond it follows the Moanya, or *' Great Water," ascended by ZoUer for 24 miles to the falls, to which point it is navigable for small steamers, having a mean breadth of 160 yards, with a depth ranging from 12 to 25 feet at high water.

The Lobe, or "Great Ba-Tanga," a small stream chiefly fed by the surface waters from the Elephant Mountain during the rainy season, is famous for the