LANDER, RICII-klID LEMON (1804-34). An English African explorer. born at Truro, Corn wall, where his father was a publican. After service witb London families, during which lie visited the West Indies and the Continent. he accompanied Major Colehrooke as servant to Cape Colony in 1823, and traveled with him across the colony. A taste for exploration led him to secure service with Capt. Hugh Clapper ton, whom he attended on his second and last expedition to the interior of Western Africa in 1825. After Clapperton's death in 1827 at Chungary, Lander with great difficulty reached the coast and returned to England in .1828. The Journal of Richard Lander from Keno to the Coast was printed with Clapperton's Journal (1829). In the following year Lander pub lished Records of Captain Clappertmes Last Expedition, to Africa, and the Subsequent Adventures of the Author (2 vols., 1830). These works exhibited qualifications that induced the British Ministry to give hint command of an ex pedition to explore the course and termination of the Niger. He and his younger brother, John Lander, left England in January, 1830, and after exciting adventures, before December of the same tear had descended the Niger from Boussa, and had determined the confluence of the Benue. or Chadda, with the Niger, and the outlet of the latter river by several deltaic mouths into the Bight of Benin. For this service Lander received the first gold medal bestowed by the Loyal Geo graphical Society of London. The brothers' jour
nals were purchased by Murray, the publisher. and edited by Lieut. Alexander Bridport Beecher and appeared as Journal of an Expedition to Ex plore the Course and Termination of the Niger (3 vols., 1832) : the work was translated into several European languages. While in command of an expedition organized by a company of Liverpool merehants to open up commerce in the African interior (1832-34), Lander was shot in an affray with natives at In7iainma on the Niger. and died shortly afterwards from the effects of his wound at Fernando Po. Consult Laird and Yerrative of an Expedition into the Interior of _t Erica in Steamers, (London, 18351.
LANDES,Nd ( Fr., heaths). Extensive tracts of land in the southwest of France, ex tending along the Bay of Biscay for a distance of about 130 miles and covering an area of more than 5000 square miles. The surface in general is flat and sandy marshland. over which the peasants travel in some parts mainly on stilts. There are. however. numerous along the coast, sonic of them reaching a height of 250 feet. Attempt, to reclaim this vast region began at the end of the eighteenth century, and now a eonsiderable part of it is covered with pine forests. The climate has also been improved by the digging of canals for the outlet of the stagnant water. The inhabitants are engaged chiefly in forestry and eattle-raising.