Abstract
LIEUTENANTS KUND AND TAPPENBECK have been conducting an expedition into the Cameroons interior during the latter part of 1887 and the beginning of the present year. Starting from Batanga they succeeded in penetrating as far as 12° 30′ W. long., when, being attacked by Soudan Negro traders they were forced to retreat., both of them seriously wounded. They succeeded in tracing the course of the Beundo or Njong River far into the interior, and brought back much information concerning the people and the products of the country. With regard to general results, they found that the water-parting between the rivers that discharge in the Cameroons region and those that flow into the Congo Basin lies not near the coast as has hitherto been supposed, and therefore it is hoped that a navigable route may be discovered that will lead well into the interior. The water-parting between the left tributaries of the Binué and the rivers in the German Cameroons also lies far in the interior. The division between the Soudan Negroes and the Bantus is not to be looked for in the direction of Adamawa, but southwards is formed by the Zannaga River and eastwards lies at a distance of 150 miles from the coast. Lieutenants Kund and Tappenbeck assert that the area of Mohammedan influence extends much farther south than has hitherto been thought. No signs of volcanic action have been met with as far as the Zannaga River or in the mountains to the north. The profile which accompanies the report shows a coast plain about 70 feet high, succeeded by a sharp slope rising to a height of from 3000 to 4000 feet, beyond which the country slopes gradually to the inner African plateau, about 2500 feet above the sea.
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Geographical Notes . Nature 38, 186 (1888). https://doi.org/10.1038/038186b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/038186b0