SAY  , a

town on the right bank of the river Niger in 13° 4' N. and 2° 30' E., in the French colony of Upper Senegal and Niger . In the agreement of 1890 between Great Britain and France for the delimitation of their respective spheres of influence in West Africa, Say was taken as the western end of an imaginary line which ran eastward to Barrua on Lake Chad . To the north the " light soil " of the Sahara—a phrase used by Lord Salisbury in explaining the nature of the agreement in the House of Lords—was recognized as French; to the south the Sokoto empire (northern Nigeria) fell to Great Britain . By the convention of 1898 Say, however, and a considerable tract of territory south and east of the town were ceded to France .