Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 May 2009
Last year I received from Colonel Freire d'Andrade a number of interesting alkaline igneous rocks, from a valuable collection made by him during an extensive exploration in North-Western Angola undertaken some years ago. Until recently our knowledge of the geology of that part of Africa was very scanty. Already in 1897 Cornet had described the western tongue of the Belgian Congo which separates the Portuguese provinces of Cabinda and Congo. Moreover, the occurrence of copper ores at Bembe and Senza do Itombe had attracted some geological attention, but it was not until Colonel Andrade's journey that any systematic geological observations were made over a large area of the territory. Since then a number of prospecting expeditions have been conducted by J. J. MacHugh, the results of which serve to extend our knowledge to the south of the area described by Colonel Andrade. In view of the inaccessibility of much of the literature dealing with Angola, it may be interesting, before giving petrological details of some of the rocks, to present in English a short sketch of the geology of part of Portuguese Congo and Loanda, embodying the observations made by Andrade and MacHugh.