FROM THE NIGER, BY LAKE CHAD, TO THE NILE."

[With 3 plates.]

By BOYD ALEXANDER, Lieutenant, Rifle Brigade, F.R.G.S.

Before commencing the narrative of my expedition across Africa I should like to make a few remarks on the object and composition of the expedition.

The first work we wished to carry out was a systematic survey of a portion of northern Nigeria. Secondly, to explore Lake Chad and the rivers between the Niger and the Nile, with the idea of demonstrating the wonderful system of waterways that connects the west with the east, and I think this is fairly well shown when I tell you that in the three years which the journey took to complete, the boats were carried for only fourteen days. Together with these primary objects, special attention was to be given to tribal distribution and orthography of native names, and a careful study made of the distribution of the fauna to prove its affinity between the West Coast and the Nile.

The party consisted of my brother officer, Capt. G. B. Gosling, Mr. P. A. Talbot, my brother Capt. Claud Alexander, and myself. With me I took my Portuguese collector, José Lopes. We were fully equipped with survey instruments.

Captain Gosling was active in obtaining zoological collections, Mr. Talbot and my brother were responsible for the Nigerian survey, for which they had special qualifications, while I acted as leader. For the river work we took with us two steel boats, double keeled, 26 feet long and 6 feet wide, drawing 11 feet for 21 tons, and made on the Hodgett principle by Forrest Brothers, of Wyvenhoe. It took 24 men to carry each boat, which was in six sections. It would be

"Addressed to the Society in the Chemical Lecture Theater, Victoria University of Manchester, on Tuesday, November 3, 1908. Reprinted by permission from The Journal of the Manchester Geographical Society, Manchester, England. Vol. 24, part 4, 1908. A large colored map, not here reproduced, accompanies the original paper, showing the route of the expedition.

Lieutenant Alexander was killed April 2, 1910, by natives near Abeshr, in Wahdi, French Kongo.

hard to exaggerate their importance. In many places they did the work of bullock transport and carriers, which were impossible to obtain; and it must be remembered that it was necessary at times to support a large number of followers, sometimes 200 in number, who had to be paid and fed. For this purpose a great amount of trade goods were carried, besides provisions, survey instruments, and photographic apparatus.

The expedition left England on February 27, 1904, and arrived at Lokoja on March 24. There it organized and went to Ibi, our first base for the survey work which was to triangulate through the country north to Bauchi and connect that place with our subsequent work in Bornu. The survey party traveled by way of the Murchison Range and passed through the country of the Montoils and Yergums, pagan cannibals who inhabit the hills. The early state of their civilization is shown by the fact that they have not yet evolved as far as the village stage; each hamlet is against each other, each village against the next, and each tribe against its neighbor; the stronger prey upon the weaker, with the result that the former inhabitants have been driven right up to the peaks of the range, where they now lead a precarious existence. They are very hostile to one another, and are continually raiding their supplanters below to get captives. It was astonishing to see how these pagans had irrigated and cultivated their fields, and taken advantage of every available patch of soil on the hillsides. At this point progress was checked by both members of the survey falling ill, which necessitated their traveling to Wase, where there is a post. Here I might mention the Wase rock, an immense mass of igneous rock rising sheer out of the plain. It is about 600 feet high, and was probably the tube of a volcano, of which all the rest have been denuded away.

Having recovered their health, the party proceeded into the Angoss country past Mount Madong. The country was hilly, with numbers of isolated rocks like that of Wase. In these parts they came across an extraordinary amount of mica; the path followed shown with it like silver, and on either hand there were great sheets of it. Beyond the Madong Mountains to the northwest lay a magnificent range with peaks 5,000 feet high. This has been named the Claud Mountains in memory of my brother.

From Bauchi the work of triangulation was carried into the unexplored and interesting country of the Kerri-Kerris. It is only necessary to describe the towns of Gamari and Lewe, as they will be found typical of all the rest. Amid an alluvial plain rises a huge circular mass of chalk with precipitous cliffs stretching sheer up on every side. At the top, 300 to 500 feet above the plain, the mass forms an absolutely level plateau, crowded with villages. In the midst of the plateau again rises a very steep peak of ironstone or laterite,

which for about 50 feet mounts by huge steps or terraces straight as the walls of a house. In the first terrace a series of deep narrow wells have been dug; these completely encircle the peaks at a distance of 10 yards or so from one another. From the top of the peak a most wonderful sight presents itself. One looks down on to the plateau and sees clusters of hamlets, each surrounded by a little wall of matting. Among them, and particularly along the edge of the cliff, are curious mud granaries. They are raised above the ground like hayricks or cornstacks in England, and their height varies from 20 to 30 feet.

The Kerri-Kerri are a tall, slim race, and have little negro strain in them. They wear fine clothes made from native cloth, are very good metal workers, and their sword blades, of peculiar shapes, are finely engraved. From their own account they have lived on these strange strongholds from time immemorial, and no tradition of an older race, dispossessed by them, has been handed down. Their crops are cultivated on the plains below, but a six months' supply of food is always kept in the granaries already described.

From the Kerri-Kerri country the survey party eventually reached Ashaka, the new base, where the boats and supplies had been brought by way of the Gongola River with considerable difficulties owing to famine and the strong currents of the river.

From Ashaka the survey party entered the Barburr country, and the work there was particularly arduous. At Dallwa it necessitated standing at times waist deep in swamp, and my brother, only recently recovered from fever, collapsed, and in the grip of the illness for the last time he was carried into Maifoni, where, in spite of the untiring efforts of Doctor Parsons and Talbot, who, as physician and nurse, showed a splendid devotion, he died on November 13, after a fight of six weeks, conscious and cheerful to the end.

The result of the survey, which we afterwards carried up to Kukawa, has been embodied in the map already published, and this work was not accomplished without much hardship, for there was illness to be overcome, and the hostility of natives met, and large numbers of carriers led and fed through famine-stricken countries.

By Christmas the expedition concentrated at Kaddai, on Lake Chad, whither, in the meantime, Gosling had brought the boats and stores by way of the Yo River.

From here Talbot and I carried out our first survey of the lake. With the exception of a few island stretches of reed with no firm ground, there is good open water between the Yo mouth and Kaddai. The shore is quite open, with rough grass frequented by kob, gazelle, and large herds of hartebeest. It has an average width of 11⁄2 miles, and beyond that there are thick woods of mimosa. There are gentle bay formations all along the shore, and the slope of the land to the