almost bisected by the equator, and by the Rio de Gabao, which
discharges in north latitude 0deg. 21' 25" and east longitude 9deg. 21'
23"; and it corresponds in parallel with the Somali-Galla country
and the Juba River on the east coast.

The general aspect of the region is prepossessing. It is a
rolling surface sinking towards the Atlantic, in parts broken by
hills and dwarf chains, either detached or pushed out by the
Ghats; a land of short and abnormally broad rivers, which cannot,
like the Congo, break through the ridges flanking the Central
African basin, and which therefore are mere surface drains of the
main ranges. The soil is mostly sandy, but a thin coat of rich
vegetable humus, quickened by heavy rains and fiery suns,
produces a luxuriant vegetation; whilst the proportion of area
actually cultivated is nothing compared with the expanse of bush.
In the tall forests, which abound in wild fruits, there are
beautiful tracts of clear grassy land, and the woods, clear of
undergrowth, resemble an English grove more than a tropical
jungle. Horses, which die of the tsetse (Glossina morsitans) in
the interior of North Guinea, and of damp heat at Fernando Po,
thrive on its downs and savannahs. The Elais palm is rare,
sufficing only for home use. The southern parts, about Cape Lopez
and beyond it, resemble the Oil River country in the Biafran
Bight: the land is a mass of mangrove swamps, and the climate is
unfit for white men.

The Eastern Ghats were early known to the "Iberians," as shown by
the Sierra del Crystal, del Sal, del Sal Nitro and other names,
probably so called from the abundance of quartz in blocks and
veins that seam the granite, as we shall see in the Congo