Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/495

 named from the explorer who here perished. Beyond the post of Dume, and not far from the Ma-Poko falls, Franceville, central station for the interior exploration, has been founded in the Passa valley, near the village of Ngimi, on the opposite side of the river. From this point runs the route, 50 miles long, leading across a rolling plateau to the navigable river Alima, and thence through the stations of Diélé, Leketi, and Pombo to the Congo.

South of Cape St. Catherine over fifty factories follow along the coast to the

mouth of the Congo. The most important north of Loango is Ma-Yumba, lying on a strip of sand between the sea and the Banya lagoon, and chief depot for the gums collected in the neighbouring forests by the surrounding Ba-Vili, Ba-Lumbo and Ba-Yaka tribes. Here every river mouth or estuary has its factory, that of the Kwilu being situated on the island of Reis. A group of sheds on the left bank of this river is already dignified with the name of town, being destined by the International African Association as the starting-point of the route laid down