Chapter XVI: Appendix

Much has been written, advised, and spoken, concerning the important question of the Geographical position of the sources of the White Nile, since this voyage of mine; many ridiculous as well as arrogant conjectures, and bold assertions, have been laid before the learned world, without any loss of time, respecting this historical subject. Among the pretenders to the discovery of the sources, Antoine D’Abbadie stands out the boldest of the bold. (_Vide_ his letters from Omokullu in Ethiopia, 5th, 6th, and 7th Aug., 1847, in the Athenæum, Nos. MXLI. and MXLII. and those to Jomard and Arago, in Paris, in the “Journal des Débats,” 5th Oct., and in the “Comptes rendus Hebdomadaires des séances de l’Academie,” 4th Oct. 1847, No. XIV., T. XXV. p. 485-487).

The principal thing of importance for a traveller who starts on expeditions of this kind, is to see with his _own eyes_, and to verify by personal inspection or mental contemplation what he hears from the Natives; for the _solitary_ traveller may have _everything_ related to him that he wishes, and, in fact, seeks to obtain. There are no European companions, and still less eye-witnesses of the soil of happy Ethiopia, to tax him with false statements; and how easy is it to find natives who have no conception of the great importance of their expressions, and are ready, without any qualm of conscience, to assent to the preconceived notions of the traveller, when they think by that means to please him!

M. Antoine D’Abbadie, even previously, had _discovered_ the sources of the White Nile,—as he wrote in a letter, dated 17th October, 1844, from Adoa (Adwa), in Habesh, addressed to us in Kàhira. (Preussiche Zeitung, 21st February, 1845, and others.) That glorious fountain-head was said to lie _then_ in the land of Gmura, or Gamru, near the mountains of Bochi, or Dochi. The latitude and longitude of it were not given. He does not seem to have planted the _drapeau tricolore_ there, any more than my French companions did at the final point of our expedition; because, had they done so, both the Turks and myself would have set up our national standard. For my part I did not let the opportunity slip of denying the claims of D’Abbadie to raise a shout of victory at having solved the question of the sources of the Nile, and to contradict his absurd etymology of the Mountains of the Moon, upon which the whole discovery was said to be based. (Monthly Report of the Geographical Society in Berlin, 7th Annual Vol., p. 20.) He thought that the name of “Gmura,” or “Gamru,” being analogous in sound to that of the Arabic language, had induced the Arabian Geographers to adopt this word, and to form it into the present Kamar (Moon). Mr. Ayrton, to whom I will afterwards advert, takes the opposite side, and is of opinion that the former denomination is a corruption of the Arabic word “Kamar.”

This Nile source of 1844 appears, however, to have been dried up again, or discarded by M. D’Abbadie, for he suddenly transplanted the _true sources_ of the White Stream into another country; the forest of Babia, between Inarya (Enarea,) and Jumma Kaka (Djimma Kaka); and, _to be sure_,—between 7° 49′ N. Lat., and 34° 48′ E. Long., from Paris. (See his reports and letters of 1847).

I must, however, entirely controvert this second discovery, notwithstanding it is declared in the most positive manner. Error, indeed, is natural to man, but truth must assert its claims; besides, I do not deny that M. Antoine D’Abbadie would have liked to have made such a discovery, or to become an historical discoverer. Far be it from me, who know what travelling is in Africa,—who suffered the tortures of its deserts and its scorching heat, and struggled several times with fever and death, to consider the Tricolour which he fastened to the trees of the Babia forest as a vane or weathercock. No: I greet it rather with friendly interest as a cheerful sign to science and a way-mark to geographical progress, and as an agreeable surprise to succeeding travellers.

Now D’Abbadie makes _his_ source of the Nile bubble up about the _eighth_ degree of north latitude; whereas, I have navigated up the river with this Expedition, which has advanced further than any other, as far as the _fourth_ degree north latitude, where, as already mentioned, the sources of the Nile were expressly pointed out to us as lying still farther to the _South_. It appears to me, therefore, a desperate and daring attempt, on the part of our discoverer, to claim for himself “primo occupanti,” that water which he saw, or even waded through, as being _a priori_, the _real and true_ source of the White Stream. The pretensions to _priority_ of discovery,—claims that were to be kept up on any terms,—may perhaps be what he has fixed his eyes upon, and which he has pursued too eagerly, without any forbearance, as is plainly perceived by his passionate letter to Mr. Ayrton, against Dr. Beke, who inclined to the opinion expressed by me concerning the source. The degree of latitude stated by him, in complete opposition to the direction of all the stream territory we visited, is no stumbling-block to him any more than the diametrically opposite opinion of the natives of Bari.

Antoine D’Abbadie specifies three points which appear to him to decide the only true source of every river; it is therefore surprising that the _first_ of these rules laid down by him, viz. to determine the course of a river by the _opinion of the people_, is exactly inapplicable to the White Nile; for _that_ is completely in opposition to his favourite idea. He tells us expressly that the aborigines dwelling at the sources of _his_ White Nile, make _these very same sources_ flow collectively into the Abbay (Blue Nile). It required, therefore, more than courage to throw aside the popular opinion, and to give a contrary direction to the sources, without having convinced himself _personally_ of the fact, by a corresponding examination of these supposed tributaries. This statement of the people of Damot ought to be more valued and credited, because, according to him, they derived their origin from Gojam (Godjam), and Bagemidr; therefore from a northern country on the Abbay.

A nation connected _directly_ with another by water-roads, as must be the case between the inhabitants of Kafa, Enarea, and Bari, according to the hypothetical river of D’Abbadie, ought to have _domestic_ animals, and customs in common, if only partly so, being under an _exactly similar climatic situation_. Enarea and Kafa have coffee, horses, and asses; but these are entirely unknown in Bari, as I stated in the year 1844 (Allgemeine Preussiche Zeitung, 24th July, 1844). Sheep, poultry, and leather are said by D’Abbadie _not_ to be in Kafa; whereas we have found them in Bari. He relates that dollars are very well known in Kafa, and that the merchants are very eager after them; but in Bari money is not known, as we convinced ourselves by enquiry. From this argument, then, the sources of D’Abbadie and the pretended countries they flow through are not connected with Bari. Besides, the names of these countries were _never_ mentioned to us. That the mountain-land, however, lying to the east of Berri, in the neighbourhood of which the water-shed might be found, is a principal emporium for these regions, and that they are connected with the rivers discharging themselves into the Indian Ocean, follows from the facts previously specified, and even from the indications of the things found there. A slave-market does not seem, however, to exist; and, in order to attest this fact, commercial reports alone could prove whether copper also was brought from the interior of Africa. We may boldly affirm, without any self-persuasion, that the _southerly_ direction of the stream can be determined, within a few degrees, from the island of Tshanker, by the plastic formation of the mountainous region, through the cleft valleys of which the true White Nile breaks.

The eye may, as it were, follow what we hear from the natives, who only point towards the south, and assert that they do not know of any water flowing towards E., where they are, however, in commercial relation with the country of Berri, ten days’ journey off; but they only speak of _springs_ found there, which were translated to us by the Arabic word, “Birr.” We were given to understand, also, that this land, so rich in copper, was mountainous; from which I conjectured that there might be brooks there, especially at the rainy season, but that not one of them could stand even a remote comparison with their Tubirih (White Stream at Bari).

So, also, the beautiful fine-grained salt, brought from thence to Bari, is not the rock-salt of the desert, but is extracted from the brackish water and slime, according to the form of the vessels in which it has been boiled. I have seen, however, in the great tract of country between the lower Atbara and the Red Sea, that a land subject to tropical rains—although, as in Africa, without rivers and streams—can provide, even in the dry season, men and animals with water from its earthly womb—that is, from the torrents and water-tanks. The Anthropophagi, also living on the mountain-chain by Logojà, in the neighbourhood of Bari, have not any running water; but they take it from the ground: namely, from natural cisterns or cavities.

We had all believed that the White Stream must come from the _East_; therefore our enquiries about that side were more careful: but not all our signs towards the East could bring back the Natives from the South, the true source of the Stream. I remember still quite well that I wrote this down immediately, and laid it before the Geographical Society, in Berlin, some years before there was any talk of the various sources described by D’Abbadie. Moreover, it seems to follow from the whole configuration of the line of mountains, that Nature has fixed here a water-shed to the East as well as to the West; for the mountain chains of Logojà and Kùgelu stretch from East and West to South, probably as branches of a mighty mountain-stock under the Equator, from which the streams of the Bach’r-el-Abiad issue.

Although M. d’Arnaud, my companion during the voyage on the White Stream, says that the latter is navigable for a “cinquante de milles” from the island of Tshànker, and arbitrarily makes the _main arm_ of the smaller rivulet of the Nile spring from the east; yet this is either only the remnant of our old affection for the _easterly_ descent of the river; or it may be the result of a want of truthfulness. I challenge Thibaut and Sabatier, his own countrymen, to come forward and state whether there was ever any talk about such a main-arm as he describes. According to Làkono, who had been there, and called the land wherein the source lies by the name of Anjan, the water in the _four_ brooks, by the conflux of which the White Nile is formed, reached _only up to the ankles_. This land, however, lay to the south, as my travelling companions must remember, and which Arnaud also allows, as I will afterwards prove.

Now if we would follow for at least 5° towards the north such a Nile brook, from this county of Anjan to the Forest of Babia, in order to be extraordinarily complaisant to M. d’Abbadie, who might rely upon Arnaud, we should not find, even with a microscope, the silver threads of his sources.

Now if I wished to discard the opinion of the people of Bari, as being contrary to my conviction, like d’Abbadie has done with respect to the views of the natives, because they were opposite to his theory, I would not say anything of the rashness of the “Knight of the Source,” nor envy him the fame which is due to him as an indefatigable traveller, and the _croix d’honneur_ awarded to him for this presumed discovery; that is, supposing that the stream we had before us on the island of Tshanker wound to the _east_ from the south under the rocks of Lugi and Kalleri (evidently harbingers of a high mountainous region), and then flowed humbly under the mountain-chain of Logoja, to seek its origin from the fourth to about the eighth degree of north latitude. The river, however, does not accommodate itself to this course, but steps forth boldly from its rocky gates, as a mountain-stream. The ascending ground, and the rocks scattered in the river above the island, shew that the fall must increase considerably in the mountainous region—as even the rocky wall of Kàlleri forms a vast waterfall at the rainy season—which might make us conclude that there is a lake lying high, in which an extensive mountain plateau pours its waters, or perhaps even serves as a periodical channel far above the Nile. The greater gradation of the river-bed, necessarily following its entrance into the rocky territory, must at last make the Forest of Babia an enormous height, in a progressive ratio; and the latter, though at a distance of four to five degrees, must be connected with mountain-ridges, to lead the stream into a high longitudinal valley lying to the south, as if into an aqueduct, so that it may not pour into the vast basin to the west, to which the Sobàt also is hastening. Without entering point by point into Antoine d’Abbadie’s accounts, which are not always clear, and the hypothesis of his defenders, I must assume that he abode not only in Inarya, the field of his study on the sources, but also in Kafa and Bonga, for he expressly says so. I can readily believe also, that the complication of rivers in the Forest of Babia cost him considerable pains to find out the _true_ source of the White Nile, against the _general and prevailing opinion there_; likewise, that he tried to discover, by means of verbal expressions, the relative quantity of water of the five tributaries, because otherwise he must have resided there three or four years, &c.

Now if it be true that the people of Damot have emigrated from Gojam, the Abbay must be well known to them, because Gros-Damot lies between water, which partly encompasses Gojam, the Gojab, and the Didesa. I do not altogether understand how he can reject the testimony of the people of Damot, on the futile ground that they descended from Gojam. If this nation now extends up to the summit of the sources, so must they also know from their primeval acquaintance with the Abbay, whether their waters pour into the Abbay or not. Though the exploration of the mouth of the Niger has also cost much labour and time; and though Dutch simplicity or craft still makes the Rhine flow into the Waal, yet it is more natural for a nation dwelling on a river to know in what direction it flows, than to be able to give the direction of the curves and windings of its tributaries towards the sources. And is it likely, that a people whom he calls aborigines, and who must therefore be acquainted with their home, should not know whether the river runs towards the south or to the north, in a stream territory with which they are well acquainted?

The second decision of D’Abbadie, that the larger mass of water decides a source or a tributary, overthrows entirely his third and most essential one, viz. that one ought to look at the direction of the river; because, in truth, he has neither followed the latter as far as the White Nile, nor to the Sobàt, whose sources appear to him a mere bagatelle. It almost seems as if he chivalrously cut asunder the Gordian knot of that entanglement of rivers during his hermitage in Iaka, and has tried to force on us a vague hypothesis as being the real matter of fact.

There is a strange controversy in the relation of his journey of discovery, which ought to be sifted closely. He had _long_ passed over the mountain-chain of Nare, when he took up his abode in the Forest of Babia, having arrived, as he expressly declares, from the basin of the Abbay (Blue Nile) into that of the White Nile; and yet he had, on his right, the sources of the Didesa, a tributary of the _Blue_ Nile. According to this statement, he has never issued from the combination of streams of the Blue Nile, or he has come to a point to which rivers flow, as in Paradise, from all four corners of the world. All this is not exactly adapted to make us believe that the river Gojab, or Uma (Omo), which springs from those sources, is identical with the _White Nile_.

Mr. Charles Johnston has conceived the strange belief that he participates in the views of D’Abbadie; but the good man makes his Gibbee (Durr, Omo) the Gibe and Gojàm of D’Abbadie, _receive_ at last the waters of the Abi (Abbay), in the environs of Fàzogl; consequently he has claims with D’Abbadie to the discovery of the main source of the _Blue Nile_.

Mr. Ayrton also (in the Athenæum, No. MLXI.), steps into the lists for M. D’Abbadie. Notwithstanding his learned attempt to fix etymologically the situation of the source-territory of the Nile by a fortuitous coincidence of words according to a previous plan of D’Abbadie, I cannot assent to his views.

If the inhabitants of the coast of the Red Sea first navigated this Stream, as naturally would be the case, and the Sabæans, from Arabia, conquered Habesh in the time of Solomon, the latter colony might still have remained their principal commercial settlement on the coast, and even have been planted long before their immigrations from Asia. The dialect of the Ethiopians, which we still recognise to belong to the Semitic languages, announces that there was a communication with these maritime countries before the period of history: yet, commerce on the coast of Habesh might perhaps only have remained a coasting-trade; for history hands down to posterity merely the fact, that the Arabs made journeys to China, and that the Nabathæans brought Indian goods and asphalt on their camels to the Egyptian market at the time of Alexander the Great,—the latter article being fished up from the Red Sea. It is improbable that the Sabæans, who were very well known under the successors of Alexander, extended into the Ethiopian highlands their colonies in Habesh, where even now the Arabic language only prevails on parts of the coast, in commercial intercourse. It is very unlikely, also, that they have given the name of “Mountains of the Moon” to a region; because such a change of a local name, which was certainly imposed upon that country beforehand, pre-supposes a regular Sabæan colony on the spot, whose idiom might perhaps be discovered in a different way than by the solitary word “Gamarö,” or “Gimirö;” for we might derive this as well from “Gimri,” or “Gumri,” (turtle-doves), as I have heard also somewhere in the Desert the name of “Gebel Gimri.” It seems to me, therefore, that it is rather too daring to wish to identify this expression,—according to Abbadie, “Gamru,” or “Gmura,” with the Arabic “Kamar.” But if these parts, so remarkable on account of the sources of the Nile, had been known in the ancient times, the Egyptian priests and Herodotus, or most certainly the later Greeks, would have learned something of them.

The argument that the illustrious Claudius Ptolemy derived his _σεληνης ορος_ from the Arabs, appears to me completely untenable. There is no record existing beyond the time of this geographer that I know of, which mentions “Gebl Kamar;” if there were, it would be convincing. There can be no doubt that Ptolemy acquired his information from Egyptian elephant-hunters, otherwise he would not have transferred the origin of the sources to the neighbourhood of the Equator. These elephant-hunts were fitted out like military expeditions by the kings of Egypt, and penetrated, according to Pliny, far into the Ethiopian provinces, beyond the Lybian deserts.

I cannot either participate in the views of Mr. Ayrton respecting the points of culmination of the Ethiopian highlands, but I assume that there are three independent mountain-chains in the interior of Africa:—the eastern one in Habesh, the western in Darfûr, and the southern being the Mountains of the Moon, in Anjan, near the equator; which place I have mentioned several times in this discourse. These form also partly the watersheds, as I will explain more clearly. I also will allow myself here a play upon words. According to D’Abbadie, the moon is called in Kafa “Agane” and “Agina,” and the name of my moon-country is “Anjan.” What more therefore do my African etymologists require? The two countries cannot lie very far asunder, and the analogy of their languages is certainly possible, without even consulting Mezzofanti,[7] but the pronunciation is always difficult to reach. “Angan,” however, is not the word for moon in Bari. If we wish to retain the expression of “Mountains of the Moon,” we must go back to a primitive word of the language of the place, as Dr. Beke thinks with regard to his “Mono Moezi.”

Once more I must return to Freind Arnaud, and his insipid account, for we could not expect anything else from him, as he did not keep any descriptive diary wherein he could note down his dreams about Làkono’s body-guard of women, and things of the same kind; but he has filled up his journal with lion and elephant hunts, and other fabulous circumstances, like a pictorial newspaper. He says (_Vide_ Bulletin de la Société de Géographie deuxième série, t. xviii. p. 376) that the Nile is navigable from Bari for thirty hours further, but forms here different arms, the most important of which comes from the east, and flows past the great country of Berri, which is fifteen days’ journey towards the east, from the mountain-chain of Bellenia (Pelenjà). I also am of opinion that the river, one arm of which, where we lay near the island of Tshànker, was three hundred metres broad, and afforded only a shallow stream of about three feet in depth to the vessels, which had become light by reason of the provisions being consumed, notwithstanding it had two miles’ rapidity, may be navigable for a considerable distance further when the high water covers the rocks, provided no cataracts of consequence oppose the course. Therefore he gives thirty hours for the southern direction of the river before he makes an arm go to the east. We could only have settled how far the river was navigated, by proceeding on our course, if that had been possible at the time.

However, there has never been any talk of these thirty hours; and Arnaud has, of his own will, reduced the distance of thirty days, repeatedly given to us by the king of Bari and his attendants, as the time required for navigating the different arms, in order to pretend that he was _closer_ to the sources. But the division of time into _hours_ must be known on the White Nile first, before such a flippant substitution can take place. It seemed also incredible to me that Anjan should be a month distant, but thirty days were plainly represented to us. If we reckon only eight hours to be a day’s journey, the distance would be _eight_ degrees, half of which we should have to deduct naturally for local impediments, to bring the geographical position of Anjan under the equator. That we had not misunderstood the word “month” was proved besides by Làkono clenching his fist three times, to denote thirty days, and also by the expression that after _two months_ (therefore at the end of March or beginning of April) the rains commenced. Lastly, the circumstance that several other tribes were said to dwell on the shores towards the south, bespeaks a considerable distance. It is, however, still a question, whether the country of Berri is ten or thirty days’ journey off. Làkono, in whose eyes the copper so abundant there has an extraordinary value, might have feared, at the commencement of our acquaintance, that we wanted to spoil his trade with Berri, and to enrich ourselves with its treasures: from this supposition he increased the distance threefold.

But when Arnaud arbitrarily reduces that first statement to fifteen days’ journey, it shews a thoughtless disposition; for he was not only present at the conversation with the king, but we have spoken of it among ourselves. He has, therefore, either entirely forgotten it, and his recollection has not been assisted by any notes written down at the time, which is quite necessary in these countries, notwithstanding the illness to which we are constantly liable; or he wanted to give a greater air of probability to his account by fiction, namely, by substituting thirty hours for thirty days.

When I find marked on his map above Bari, “Country of the Pulunchs,” it recalls clearly to my recollection how he believed every thing without investigation, and noted down what Thibaut told him. I was sitting one day sketching on the rocks of the island: some natives stood by, who understood very well what I was doing, and I still see them—how they extended their arms horizontally, and made undulating movements, which was meant to denote a continuation of the mountains lying before us to the south, and then mentioning several names, held up their hands together, and by the thumb indicated to me that there was _one_ mountain exceeding all the others in height, whilst they looked contemptuously at the other chain of mountains. At the same time they bawled in my ears, because I did not speak, and still less could answer, so that I was nearly deaf, under which affliction they probably thought I was labouring. I got up and went down to the shore, where I saw Thibaut standing. He stretched his hand towards the south, with an enquiring look, and the people said “Pulunch,” whereupon he burst out into an Homeric laugh, and said, “that is something for Arnaud.” The latter has made a country out of this observation, and perhaps with justice.

With regard to the time of the winds and rains in Central Africa, I have tried several times, but find myself incapable of explaining these magnificent natural phenomena. It appears certain, that the monsoons of the Indian, the trade-winds of the Atlantic Oceans, and the north winds from the Mediterranean, are subject to different natural laws in the interior of Africa, where it is comparatively cooler than on the sea-shore; for the winds were never constant during our course: they changed continually from side to side, and all the observations and calculations of our sailors, accurate as they are in other places, failed in ascertaining the tide and quarters of the moon. As to the mutual swelling of the two Niles near Khartùm (called by the Turks Khàrdùm), the sources have nothing to do with the first rising of the water, but the succeeding ones give a quantity of water to the countries subject to tropical rains, together with their gohrs and tributaries, among which the Sobàt is the most considerable for the White Stream. This mass of water immediately becomes imperceptibly level, excepting certain disproportions, with the head of Sennaar, conformably to hydrostatic laws.

It would be an idle attempt to endeavour to speak out clearer and more strikingly touching the formation of the soil of Central Africa; for a master like Professor Carl Ritter has already done this in his “Glance at the Source-territory of the Nile.” In order to set aside many preconceived opinions, and again to give the true imprint of my own views, I do not hesitate to annex the report of Dr. Girard, whom I have several times mentioned, and which was contained in the above instructive little work, being partly founded upon my geognostical collection; because this learned young man has discovered and ascertained, with acuteness rarely to be found, the quality of the soil in Africa, so far as I am able to judge from my expedition. He says:—“There are three great mountain chains in the eastern part of Central Africa, one extending to the east, the other to the South, and the third to the West. The eastern one surrounds the large Tzana-lake, and contains the sources of the Tacazze and the Blue Nile, and ascends easterly from the latter to a height of more than 10,000 feet. The southern and south westerly, respecting the elevation of which nothing is known, forms the water-shed between the tributaries of the Nile and the territory of the streams flowing westerly, and is that region formerly called the Mountains of the Moon. Lastly, the north-westerly, the centre of which is in the Jebel Marra, from which some tributaries wind towards the south, to the Bah’r-el-Abiad; but the most of these subordinate streams flow towards the west, the centre of Africa. Between the eastern and southern mountain-stock, there is another chain of high mountains, not extensive but lofty, which, forming the westerly part of Enarea, appears to spread to the kingdom of Bari, and attains in Enarea a height of more than 7000 feet.[8]

“A marsh-land extends to the south of this mountain, and the Goshcop flows into it: if it be permitted to carry our surmises so far, we should say that not any high mountains are to be expected further to the south, for coffee and cotton are cultivated on the other side of the Goshcop-valley, because we conceive that there is a salt-lake, and, lastly, a land producing gold. The former may be considered to lie on a dry table-land, the latter on a low plain, wherein the auriferous loam and sand may be deposited.

“A similar auriferous foreland seems to extend in the centre of these regions, between the highlands of Enarea and Bari, to the upper course of the Bah’r-el-Abiad, and the mountains of Kordofàn, Sennaar, and Fàzogl.[9] It is a country which is inhabited partly by negroes pursuing agriculture. Another part consists of wide plains, covered with high grasses, wherein many elephants pasture, and which is bounded on the north by a girdle, thirty miles in breadth, of a ground containing gold-sand. These are the plains through which the Sobàt (written in French Saubat) flows with its _tributaries_ to the Bah’r-el-Abiad.[10] The specimens from the shores of the Sobàt are composed partly of a micaceous sand, of a brown black ochrous clay, of chalky sand, and partly of a conglomerate, which is baked together and composed of small fragments of limestone. The sand, when it is pure, consists of several little yellowish grains of quartz, a small portion of reddish feldspar, some brown iron-stones, tombac, brown mica, and little grains of a black mineral, the nature of which cannot be accurately ascertained. This composition denotes that the sand derives its origin from a mica slate, and gneiss chain of mountains, not very distant; for if the sand were far from the mountains from whence it sprang, it would not contain coloured mica. The sand of the shore of the Bah’r-el-Abiad, in the kingdom of Bari, is perfectly similar to this sand, only somewhat coarser in grain, and, moreover, merely attaining to the size of millet. It contains principally quartz, then the same brown mica, only in a larger quantity than in the preceding sand, and, in addition, several more of those black grains, proving that there is hornblende here. This comes probably from syenite and diorite masses, as they are frequently seen in gneiss and mica-slate mountains. They might, however, be of volcanic origin, for they contain, in great abundance, the lava of the Jebel Defafaungh (written in French Tefafon) on the north boundary of the said plain. The mountain is clearly an extinct volcano. It rises probably from a basaltic plateau, for basalt with olivine and pyroxene are seen in it, and red-brown porous lava, with large rounded hornblende crystals and dark-grey tophus, formed of clear little porous fragments of lava and fine ashes, seem to cover its declivity. The tophus, as well as the lava, does not contain any vitreous feldspar, nor is any pumice-stone observable among them, but all the products of the volcano shew that it is a converted basalt.

“The volcanic activity appears not to have extended far, and is only discovered on the northern margin of this cauldron, which was probably, at one time, a large sweet-water basin, for the stones of Sennaar in the north, those of Fazògl and Bertat in the east, of the country of Bari in the south, and of Kordofàn and Jebel Tira in the west, are of a different nature.

“The collections in this city are derived partly from M. Werne, who made them in the expedition sent by the Basha of Egypt in the year 1840, and partly are owing to the scientific liberality of M. Russegger; and they afford sufficient information with respect to the general geognostic relations of these scarcely discovered mountains.

“The chain of the Mountains of the Moon consists, according to the several specimens, of gneiss and mica-slate. One of these specimens, was taken from the most southerly point that the expedition reached, and indeed, ‘from the cataracts in the land of Bari;’ that is to say, from the rock which prevented the expedition from penetrating further into the country. It is gneiss, composed of white feldspar, and much black mica, and mica-slate; the friable and exceedingly granulous quartz does not contain feldspar, but small scaly black mica. There is found, moreover, in the valley of Berri, magnet iron-stone, which, however, does not seem to be commonly known; for it has been collected to the amount of several pounds weight, as being merely sand, without any other particles of stone.[11]

“The magnet-iron displays also, in several places, brittle iron-ore, and reminds me of similar occurrences in the large mica-slate mountain-chain of the Brazils.

“We do not possess, unfortunately, any specimens from the high mountains of Enarea, but the stones of the lands of Bertat, Sennaar, and Fazògl, are well known through M. Russegger’s excellent collection. There are granite and gneiss mountains in the land of Bertat, and in the southern part of Fazògl; chlorite slate (probably the stone bringing gold here) follows this chain towards the north, together with mica-slate; and lastly, in Sennaar, there is also clay-slate. In the latter, which is very much changed in some places, veins of granite and quartz are at the top, so that here also, as in many other points, the clay-slate appears the more ancient, the granite the more modern stone. Granite is met with likewise on the Bah’r el Abiad, in the Jebel Njemati (Iemati), being partly of pink feldspar, white albin, grey quartz and black mica, and partly composed without albin, and only of dark red feldspar, white quartz, and black mica.

“Similar species of rocks are found in Kordofàn, viz., granite, gneiss, and mica-slate. However, diorite makes its appearance towards the south, consisting of white feldspar, green and black hornblende, and a little volcanic sand. On the island of Tira there is also chlorite slate. But the most remarkable thing is the appearance of clinkstone or phonolite, found in Koldadschi (written also Kodalgi and Koldagi), in Russegger’s collection.

“This circumstance is conclusive of a considerable development of basaltic stones in these regions, though it does not denote volcanic phenomena; for phonolite, with us, only appears in those basaltic mountain-groups where there has not been any eruption of volcanoes.

“A sandstone and hornstone formation, probably belonging to the latter tertiary rocks, is situated before the mountain-chain of Kordofàn and Sennaar, to which Mount Mandera, which consists of syenite, is united in the east. It forms the Jebel Mussa, specimens from which have been given both by Russegger and Werne.

“We wind up the geognostical picture of these countries by saying that we find granite, gneiss, and mica-slate generally spread, with which clay-slate, chlorite-slate, and diorite present themselves, all of the earlier formation,—new stones of basalt, phonolites, and volcanoes, springing from the tertiary epoch, join on immediately to the others. The limestone conglomerates, found in the Sobàt, have perhaps their origin in chalk lime-stone, to which they belong apparently, judging from external appearances; and if this should be the case, the geognostical relations of the eastern part of central Africa are closely allied to those of Palestine, Syria, and Asia Minor.”

THE END.

LONDON:
Printed by S. & J. BENTLEY and HENRY FLEY,
Bangor House, Shoe Lane.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: A Parisian or French foot is equal to 1·066 English (Transl.)]

[Footnote 2: A water-shed is the geographical term for a mountain-range, which causes the rivers rising on them to descend in different directions.]

[Footnote 3: A mètre is equal to 3·281 English feet. (Trans.)]

[Footnote 4: On the Rhine. (Trans.)]

[Footnote 5: Corrected in this translation. (Transl.)]

[Footnote 6: Bartholomew de las Casas, a Spanish prelate, born at Seville in 1474, and died at Madrid 1566. He set at liberty the Indians who had fallen to his share in the division of Cuba, when it was conquered by Columbus, and interested himself for them with King Ferdinand. With a strange inconsistency, however, he became the author of the slave trade, by his proposal to purchase negroes from the Portuguese in Africa to supply the planters with labourers, which suggestion was unfortunately adopted.—(Translator).]

[Footnote 7: Poor Cardinal Mezzofanti, “the monster of languages,” as Byron called him, died while this translation was being made, 16th March, 1849. (Trans.)]

[Footnote 8: The above supposition is justified by the plastic proportions given: we must assume, however, that this chain falls away to the country of Bari, but swells up south of Bari, and joins a mountain-stock in the country of Anjan.—_The Author._]

[Footnote 9: Gold is, however, unknown in Bari.—_The Author._]

[Footnote 10: I do not know of any tributaries belonging to the Sobàt.—_The Author._]

[Footnote 11: The magnet iron-stone is not found in the valley of Berri, but principally in the mountains of Bari, especially in Korèk, where it must be, however, general; for the iron-sand I brought with me, which was already cleared from stones, and perhaps from mud, appears in the mountains themselves, in the dry beds of the torrents, and washed out hollows and ravines.—_The Author._]

Transcriber's note:

pg 37 Changed: first suubdued to: subdued

pg 40 Changed: very difierent kinds to: different

pg 56 Changed: because the Dinkani to: Dinkaui

pg 59 Changed: a heathen Dinkani to: Dinkaui

pg 60 Changed: 60′ to S. and 75′ to E. to: 60″ to S. and 75″ to E.

pg 61 Changed: southerly 60°. long. to: 60″

pg 61 Changed: towards S.E. 50° to: 50″

pg 62 Changed: S.W. 28′ to W. to: 28″

pg 62 Changed: S.W. 30′ to W. to: 30″

pg 62 Changed: Mount Bio S.W. 60′ to: 60″

pg 81 Changed: everthing for beads to: everything

pg 142 Changed: protruding spheically to: spherically

pg 142 Changed: bows and arrors to: arrows

pg 213 Changed: quarter aften ten to: after

pg 218 Changed: a little foward to: forward

pg 223 Changed: village no the left to: on

pg 233 Changed: insterspersed with slender to: interspersed

pg 237 Changed: again witk a to: with

pg 242 Changed: notwithsanding the narrow to: notwithstanding

pg 319 Changed: peices or specimens to: pieces

pg 341 Changed: forest of Bahia to: Babia

pg 345 Changed: σεληνος ορος to: σεληνης

pg 345 Added a missing reference to footnote 7 after: cardinal
Mezzofanti,

pg 352 Changed: the expediton for to: expedition

Minor changes in punctuation have been done silently.

Other spelling inconsistencies have been left unchanged.