Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/565

 left side of Lake Albert Nyanza. After traversing regions not yet visited by the white man, it enters the domain of the Monbuttus (Mang-Battu), a country already made known by the descriptions of Schweinfurth. Monbuttu Land is a magnificent region, an "earthly paradise," abounding in an exuberant vegetation, diversified with charming park-lands and picturesque landscapes. Standing at an altitude of from 2,500 to 2,800 feet, and rising in gentle undulations to hills 300 or 400 feet high, it enjoys a temperate climate, notwithstanding its proximity to the equator. Running waters wind along the bottom lands, shaded by large

trees with intertwined branches, while the habitations are everywhere encircled by verdant clusters of bananas and oil-palms. Although there are no towns, the population is very dense, being estimated by Schweinfurth at about one million. In other words, in a space some 4,000 square miles in extent, the number of inhabitants, nearly two hundred to the square mile, would be one-fourth greater than the average in France.

The Monbuttus differ greatly in physical appearance from their neighbours, being distinguished by almost Semitic features and often even by a perfectly