Page:EB1911 - Volume 24.djvu/671

 which was formerly noted for the export of gum arabic, and on the shores of the bay formed by Cape Blanco is Port Etienne, a fishing station provided with jetties and guarded by a military post. These last-named ports are in the Territory of, but are most conveniently mentioned here.) On the are the towns of Richard-toll (Richard's garden), Dagana and , all three founded by the  government in . Carabane, Zighinchor and Sedhiu are settlements on the Casamance river. , , Goree and Rufisque are communes, with a franchise exercised by natives and Europeans alike. The total white population of the four towns is about.

Agriculture and Trade.—Senegal’s chief commercial product is the, which, since , has yielded about tons a year. , the staple food of the population,  and  occupy about two-thirds of the cultivated land. is gathered by the s in the northern region; the nut is cultivated and  is collected in the district of Casamance, which projects between  and. There are large herds of and flocks of  and s, besides numerous s, es and s., ,  and  are found. The s carry on, , making, and manufacture trinkets. (chiefly from ) form the most important articles of import, and after them come nuts (mainly from ),, s and spirits, , implements, sugar,  and fancy goods; the exports are mostly s;  (much of which comes from the  regions),  and  coming next in value. The imports and exports of Senegal are not shown separately, the figures for being included. The average annual value for the five years ending was. By the value had risen to nearly. takes % of the exports;, the and  the bulk of the remainder. In value s form four-fifths of the exports.

Communications.—A, m. long, goes from  to, from which point the  is navigable by steamer from August to November, both inclusive, for about  m., the navigable reach terminating at , whence a  runs to the. Direct communication between and the  is afforded by a  starting from Thies, a station on the way to, and ending at. The construction of this line began in. Telegraph lines connect the with all other parts of. is in direct cable communication with, and another cable connects with Cadiz. Steamship communication between Europe and and Rufisque is maintained by several, British and German lines. Over % of the shipping is French, Great Britain coming second.

This colony is bounded N. by the n territories dependent on, W. by and the Territory of , S. by the   of  and the , the Northern Territories of the  ,   and. The Military Territory dependent on the extends E. of the  to the  territory of, being bounded S. by. The and its dependent territory thus form the link connecting all the possessions of  in north, west and central. Their area is estimated at sq. m., with a population of some. Those s living north and east of the are mainly of   stock; the inhabitants of the  bend are chiefly ids, such as the, with  in certain districts.

The, as a whole, consists of a great of  and , rarely more than  ft. high, and in its N.W. part, the Kaarta, all but. the western portion belongs to the basin of the, the central to that of the. At Mopti, m. S.W. of, the receives the Mahel Balevel, which rises in about ½ and with its tributaries drains a very large area. In its lower courses its divergent channels, uniting with offshoots from the, form in the season an immense lake. This region—apparently the Wangara country of —is sometimes called Bambara, the name of the chief race inhabiting it. The lakes or widening of the itself occupy vast areas; Lake Debo, the Lake of Horo, the Lake of Dauna, Lake Faguibini are all to the south or west of, and are permanent. The greater part of the lies within the bend of the, but westward it includes both banks of the  as far as the Faleme confluence. It also extends north of the so as to include the fertile land on the borders of the. On the S.W. and S. the country is somewhat ous and the general trend of the land and the course of the rivers is south to north. East of the the conditions are mostly n, but there is a belt of fairly fertile country, bordering northern  and extending to. This region includes the state of (q.v.) and the  of Air or Asben and  (q.v.). The country west of the contains patches of forest, but it consists mainly of open land well adapted to  and stock-raising. The includes the, , , ,  and various kinds of. The climate is tropical, but, apart from the districts inundated by the s, dry and not unhealthy.

The Protected States.—Of the states included in the  Bambuk lies between the  and the Faleme and Bafing. It is traversed from N .W. to S.E. by the steep and wall-like range of the Tamba-Ura Mountains. The soil in a large part of the country is of remarkable fertility;, , , s, , s, s and other fruits grow abundantly; the forests are rich in a variety of valuable trees; and extensive stretches are covered with abundant pasturage of the long. The inhabitants, a branch of the race, own large herds of  and. The reports which reached during the th and th centuries of a country in Upper Senegal rich in  referred to this district, where both alluvial and  deposits have been found, though the stories of &ldquo;hills of &rdquo; remain unverified. In all the protected states the rulers retain a considerable degree of authority and  law is administered.

Towns.—The principal towns in the are, in Upper Senegal,, Bafulabé and Kita; in the  regions Sikaso, the centre of the  trade; Bamako, the seat of government; Kulikoro, Segu, Sansandig, Bambara,  (q.v.) and  (q.v.). Nioro is the capital of the Kaarta country; between it and are Gumbu and Sokolo;  (q.v.), Zinder or Sinder (not to be confounded with the  mentioned above), Sansanne Hausa, Niamey and  are towns on the  below,  (q.v.) being an entrepôt for the trade of the east n regions. In the centre of the bend is the important city of Wagadugu, the capital of Mossi, a id and  state dating from the th century. Satadugu is on the upper course of the Faleme. Sati and Leo are towns just north of the  hinterland.

Of these towns is situated on the  at the point of which that river ceases to be navigable from the sea—a distance of  m. from. Bamako, chosen in as the capital of the, is on the upper  at the head of its navigable waters and is in  communication with. Segu, where first reached the, is regarded as the capital of Bambara rather than the town of Bambara, which is on a backwater of the  some  m. S. of. Before the occupation the possessor of Segu was the ruler of the surrounding country; and the town was the headquarters of the s Omar and Ahmadu (see below, ). Sansandig stands on the north bank of the below Segu. It was visited by in, and Lieut. E. Mage and Dr Quintin, officers, witnessed the stand it made in  against a siege by Ahmadu,  of Segu, from whom it had revolted. Before its conquest by the in the first half of the th century Sansandig was an important mart, owing to its position at the upper end of the stretch of the  navigable for large vessels all the year round. After its occupation by in  its commercial importance gradually returned. It possesses good anchorage and landing places.

Communications.—There is regular communication by rail and river between, the principal port of Senegal, and , the journey occupying ten to twelve days. A linking the  and  rivers starts at  on the, passes S.W. through Bafulabé and Kita, whence it goes E. to Bamako on the , and follows the left bank of that river to Kulikoro, the terminus, from which point the  is navigable down stream all the year round for a distance of  m., while from Bamako the  is navigable up stream to , a distance of  m., for the greater part of the year. The - is  m. long, and occupied twenty-four years in construction, owing to bad management and periods of retrogressive policy in. The total cost was upwards of. Construction of the line was sanctioned in ; by, when had been spent, but  m. of rails had been laid. The rd mile was reached at a cost of per mile for actual construction. Notwithstanding this heavy expense the line was condemned as hopelessly defective. In it reached Bafulabé ( m.) when work was suspended, not to be vigorously resumed until. The entire line was opened for traffic in. s ply on the between Kabara, the port of, and Kulikoro and Bamako. Good connect Mossi