114 Bahr el Ghazal Country.

the altitude increases, the latter station being 2,275 feet above the level of the sea. The country is broken and intersected by numerous streams. Blocks of hornblende and schist are met with, as also masses of red granite, flats of gneiss, and swamp ore.

In passing south-east towards Dem Bekr the hills continue ; alternate flats of gneiss and swamp are passed, also marshy depressions and woods, while meadow land and the characteristics of the steppe country are absent ; there are no springs, only the dry beds of various watercourses. Dem Bekr. Dem Bekr lies on the little River Duro ; broad, grassy depression; flat country ; much bush. On proceeding towards the south, ridges of hills appear in all directions of the character universal in Central Africa, consisting of ranges with isolated peaks, or plateaus of grey gneiss rising up from the beds of iron ore. They are probably the remnants of earlier chains •of mountains. The elevated land— i.e., the Nile-Congo watershed—now runs to the south-east, while towards Bongo Land are a series of steppes, extensive marshes, ranges of low, flattopped hills, stretches of forest, and khors—dry, except during the rains.

To the south-east of the Mudirieh, in the Bongo and Mittu countries, are hills of considerable height, an off-shoot from the more southern highlands, which serves as a watershed between the Tonj and Jur Rivers.

Population. The following are the principal tribes included in the Bahr el Ghazal district :—The Dinka, Jur, Bongo, Dembo, Grolo, Krej, Sehre, Bellanda, Babukur.

Bongo.

History. Bongo Land was the most important and most representative district of the Mudirieh.

This country lies between 6° and 8° N. lat. on the south-western boundary of the depressions of the Bahr el Ghazal basin, and on the lowest terraces of ferruginous crust bordering the alluvial land.

Its area is about the same as that of Belgium, but it is a deserted wilderness. In 1870, it averaged only 11 or 12 inhabitants to the square mile.