Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/475

 facilities for penetrating inland than the Ogoway, leads to a region within 60 miles of the Congo, which is reported to abound in copper and lead deposits.

The broad features of the climate are revealed by the periodical rise and fall of the fluvial waters. Thus the Ogoway continues to rise from September to the middle of December, and then falls to the end of J; anuary, indicating the season of

the winter rains followed by a short interval of fine weather. Then follow the great rains, when the river again begins to rise, usually attaining its maximum about the first week in May, and again regularly subsiding till September. The rainfall gradually diminishes southwards from the Rio del Campo to Cape Lopez and thence to the Portuguese territory, falling from about 120 inches north of the Gaboon to 100 about the equator, but varying greatly on the Loango coast, where it fell from 63 inches in 1875 to no more than 16 in 1877. The quantity of moisture precipitated corresponds generally to the frequency and density of the