Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1913.djvu/963

 FRENCH WEST AFRICA 841

The new Colony is bounded on the north 1)y the Algerian sjihere ; on the west by the Falenie river and the frontier of French Guinea ; on the soutli ])y the frontiers of the Ivory Coast, Gold Coast, Togoland, and Dahomey, and now includes Fada-N'Gounna and Say, whence the boundary runs to the frontier of N. JSigeria, which it follows to Lake Chad ; and on the east by a line northward from Lake Chad. It therefore includes the valley of the Upper Senegal, more than two-thirds of the course of tlie Niger, the whole of the countries enclosed in the great Bend, and the Sahara to the Algerian sphere of influence. The area is about 72,000 square miles with a population in 1910 of about 4,471,031, including 831 Europeans.

At the same time that this Colon.y was formed the Military Territories, which now form an integral jjart of it, were broken up. The Second Military Territory, which included nearly all the country within the Bend, was handed over to the Civil administration, and the First (Timbuktu) and Third (Zinder-Chad) were amalgamated under a colonel as the Military Territory of the Niger, divided into 4 districts, Timbuktu, Gao, Niamey, Zinder, each under a major. This Military Territory is administered under the authority of the Lieutenant-Governor of the Colony, and its budget forms an annexe to the Colonial budget, and amounted, for 1911, to 1,510,000 francs.

With the exception of the Military Territory of the Niger the whole of Upper Senegal-Niger is under civil administration, with the same judicial and educational systems as the other Colonies comprised in the Government General. The budget of the colony for 1911 provided for an income of 8,963,342 francs, and an expenditure of 8,616,962 francs.

The most important and populous towns in the Upper Senegal and Niger are : Bobo-Dionlasso (7,700 inhabitants), Bamako (6,500 inhabitants), Segou (6,200 inhabitants), Kayes (5,900 inhabitants), Djenne (4,900 inhabitants). The most important centres of the military terntorv are : Timbuktu (5, 100 inhabitants), Goundam (3,200 inhabitants), Dori (3,400 inhabitants). Filingue (2,700 inhabitants). All the principal towns have urban schools, At Kayes is a professional school and a school for sons of chiefs. In 1907 there were in Upper Senegal and Niger, including Military Territories, 50 official schools with 1,639 pupils, and 2 Catholic private schools with 95 pupils. There is a Mussulman superior school with 30 pupils (official).

The natives cultivate ground nuts, millet, maize, rice, cotton ; other products are rubber and kariti.

Native industries comprise pottery, brick-making, jewelleiy, weaving, leather-making. Chief imports are cottons, food stuffs, metal work, Chisf exjiorts are ground nuts, cattle, rubber, skins and wool.

There is a very complete system of telegraph throughout the Colony from Kayes to Niamey and Zinder, and soon to Lake Tchad. There Avere at the end of 1907, 4,050 miles of telegraph line and 74 miles of telephone line.

The Senegal -Niger Railway goes from Kayes to Koulikoro, a distance of 349 miles. Small steamboats perform the service from Koulikoro to Timbuktu, so that it is now possible to perform the wliole journo}^ from Europe to Timbuktu by rail and steamer,

A telegraph line is shortly to connect Timbuktu with Algeria.

Mauretania, formed into a protectorate in Januar}'-, 1909, consists of the five districts of Trarza, Brakna, Gorgol, Giiidimaka, and Tagant, with a total area of 344,967 square miles. The northern limit of the protectorate is approximate, and the foregoing area is obtained by taking the latitude 23"^ 3' N. as the northern boundary. The population in 1906 was about