The Kernel T h e B iv e r r e B iv e r . Explored length 96 miles,
of the
Umaueh, right bank . . . . 15,000
Village, left bank . . . . 1,000
Yakui, left bank . . . . 10,000
„ right bank. . . . 4,00Q
Isombo,-right bank . . . . 4,000
Villages.................................. 2 ,00a
Yambi . ............................. 2,000
Bondeh, . . . .. ., , 10,000’
Irungu . . . . . . . | , 5,000
Y am b u a * ............................ 5,000
'Villages .................................. 500
Yambumba............................ 20,000
V illage s............................ - 1,000
Thence to Yambuya . . . -. 15,000
94,500
Kwa Biver and Lake Leopold II. 54,000.
To Lake-Mantumba . . . . 25,000
Arranged in a tabular form, the populations thus
estimated would present the following numbers :—
Along 1068 miles both banks of the Congo . . 632,800
„ 96 „ „ „ Biyerre*. •. • 94,500
281 *„ ‘ • „ „ Kwa Bivel afld) -4. nm
Lake Leopold II. f
„ 70 „ . „ j, LukangaKiveri 25 QOO
and Lake Mantumba)
1515
2
2030 miles- Total population of both banks=806,300
If we estimate these 806,300 people'as being settled
along a belt 2030 miles long with a breadth of ten
miles, and suppose the same density to exist throughout
the area of the Upper Congo section, our quotient
in- population will amount to 43',294,000. Of
the southern* portion of this section, • Dr. Pogge and
Lieutenant Weissman, who crossed the upper Lubilash, The Kernel
of the
write - ' Argument.
“ The country is densely peopled, and some of the villages are miles in
length. They are clean,-with commodious houses shaded byoil-palmS
and bananas, and surrounded by carefully divided fields, ip which, quite
contrary to the usual African practice, man is seen to till the soil whilst
woman attends to household offices.
“ From the Lubilash to the Lumani there stretches, almost uninterruptedly
a prairie region of great fertility, the future pasture-grounds
of the world. The reddish loam overlying the granite bears luxuriant
grass and clumps of trees, and only the banks are densely wooded.
I The rains fall during eight months of the year, from September to
April, but they are not excessivë. .The temperature varies from 63° Fah.
to 81° Fah., but in the dry season it occasionally falls as low as
45° Fahrenheit.”
Tippu Tib, the. gréât Arab trader in' the interior,
who bas traversed the south-east portion of this section,
described to me personally his- astonishment at the density
of the population. He told me how he had passed
through several towns which took a; couple of hours to
traverse, of the beauty of savannah, park, and prairie
country he saw, and how the site of the camp left in
the morning might be. seen from the evening camp
after a six hours’ march.
From the north-east of this section we have the
testimony of Dr. Schweinfiirth in the following words :
“ From the Welle to the residence of the Monbuttu
king, Munza, the way leadg through a country of
marvellous beauty, an almost unbroken line of the
primitively simple dwellings extending on either side
of the caravan route.
He estimates the Nyam-Nyam country to be about
5400 square miles in extent, populated by 2,000,000,