GABLONZ, a town of the north of Bohemia, 6 miles SE. of Reichenberg. Its glass manufactures employ some 12,000 men. Pop. 21,100. Gaboon and French Congo, a French colony on the west coast of Africa between the Atlantic and the middle Congo. Its north boundary touches the German colony of the Cameroons; from below Brazzaville to the entrance of the Ubangi (Mobangi), the Congo is the boundary on the south-east and east, and the Ubangi for an indefinite distance ; below Brazzaville to the sea, the south boundary is formed by the river Tshi-loango and the water-parting between the Congo and the Kwilu. Its area is estimated at 250,000 sq. m., and the population-very loosely-at 5,000,000. The coast is tolerably uniform, the principal indentations being Corisco Bay and the estuaries of the Gaboon and Ogowe in the northwest. These last are with the Kwilu the principal rivers. The Gaboon, not a river, but an estuary, 10 miles wide at its entrance, penetrates 40 miles inland, with a width of from 6 to 12 miles. On the north bank is the settlement of Libreville. The climate on the coastal strip is extremely unhealthy; mean annual temperature, 83° F. On the inland plateau (2600 feet above sea-level) it is better. Amongst the exports figure timber, gum, ivory, gutta-percha, palm oil and kernels, earth-nuts, sesamum, and malachite; other products are brown hematite, quicksilver, sugar-cane, cotton, and bananas. The principal imports are salt, spirits, gunpowder, guns, tobacco, cotton goods, and iron and brass wares. The people belong for the most part to tribes of the Bantu stock. This part of Africa was discovered by the Spaniards in the 15th century. The French made their first settlement on the Gaboon estuary in 1842 ; twenty years later they extended their sway to the Ogowe. But they seem never to have attached any importance to the colony until after De Brazza began to explore it in 1876-86. The principal towns are Libreville (the capital), Franceville, Loango, and Brazzaville.