, and by Cabo Negro in south latitude 15deg. 40' 7", a
sea-line of nearly 1,200 miles. The Gaboon proper is included
between the Camarones Mountains to the north, and the
"Mayumba,"properly the "Yumba" country southwards, in south
latitude 3deg. 22',--a shore upwards of 400 miles long. The inland
depth is undetermined; geographically we should limit it to the
Western Ghats, which rarely recede more than 60 miles from the
sea, and ethnologically no line can yet be drawn. The country is
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.
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