ders. From Kouka, where he left Captain Clapperton, Major Denham proceeded with a force collected under the command of Bhoo Kaloom, an Arab, and Barca Gana, a negro general, southward to the kingdom of MANDARA, tributary to Bornou, on a GHRAAZIE, or slave-catching expedition. They marched, he says, direct ly south from Kouka till they reached MORA, the capital of Mandara, distant 180 miles. Mora is situated in a valley, the appearance of which indicates that it had once formed the bot tom of a large lake, with high mountains surrounding it on all sides, except to the north, where there is the narrow pass of Horza. These mountains rose to an elevation of 2500 feet above the level of the plain, and which plain must again be at a very consi derable elevation above the level of the sea, because, says Major Denham, (p. 128,) "where standing, we were higher than anywhere in Bornou, ha ving ascended ever since leaving Kou ka." Allowing the ascent to have been only at the rate of six feet per mile, it would give a height of 1080 feet, which, with 1400 feet, the elevation of Kouka, will bring the plain of Mora to be 2500 above the level of the sea. From Mora they proceeded 35 miles farther south to Musafeia, the hills, as they marched south, rising in height, and the Alpine Peak of MENDIFY was there visible at a distance of about 35 miles more to the south, making its position 250 miles south of Kouka, or nearly 4° of latitude.

The Peak of Mendify rises (p. 146) above the surrounding Peaks with singular boldness, and in Alpine majesty. Towering Peaks appear at a distanee from Musafeia, several thousand feet higher" than the hills round Mora, 2500 above the plain, and "composed of immense rocks of granite." The inhabitants of Mandara say (p. 146) that the range extends "southward for two months' journey," and call them mountains, large," LARGE MOON MOUNTAINS"-Major Denham sup poses the mountains of Mora to form part of the Mountains of THE MOON (p. 131). The range commences near Dulow, on the north. The extent is apparently in interminable ranges, E. S. E. & S. W. & W.," and towards the south they appear in several masses of hills, in all the picturesque forms imaginable.

At this point the combined forces of the Arabs, Bornou, and Mandara, were defeated and driven back, and Major Denham narrowly escaped with his life. Into the details of this marauding expedition, we do not mean to enter. We have been thus particular about the distance from Kouka, the position and height of those hills, first, because no river is found flowing from the west to the east, between Kouka and them; and, secondly, because no river is in that part of the chain found flowing to the north; thirdly, that the elevation of the country in this portion of Africa may be more accurately known; and fourthly, because on this very spot, seen and described by Major Denham, stands the famous MT. THALA of Ptolemy, in 10° N. lat. and 38° long. E. of Ferro, or 13° 40° E. of Greenwich. This a curious and remarkable confirmation of the accuracy on this point of that early geographer, and it is not a little surprising that the important fact is not adverted to by Major Denham.

In the Quarterly Review, No. 58, and when the writer in it set down the Yeou as the Niger, we find it stated "that the range of the Mandara hills extended west thirty days' journey. Major Denham says that the people of Mandara stated, that they extended SOUTH Sixty days' journey. Farther, he states :-A Mandara man (p. 144) told him they extended twenty days' journey south. At that distance is a plain, in which Adamowa is situated, surrounded by hills TEN TIMES higher than any they could see in Mandara In his journey hither, he saw severa. extensive lakes, and with great clearness described a river running between two very high ridges of mountains, which he crossed, previous to reaching Adamowa. The river came from the west, and is the same with the QUOLLA at Nyffe. It had no connexion with the Kano river, and which latter river, again, had no connexion with the Shary river. The main body of the great river, he farther stated, was called D. AGo; and it passed southward of BAGHERME, and went eastward to the Nile; to the south of this river the population are all Kirdy (Pagans) until you come to the Great Desert. This desert is passed several times in the year by Kafilas with white people, not Christians. They bring

goods from the great sea, which go as far as Adamowa."

We have been particular in this quotation, and allude to it thus early, in order to show the confusion and carelessness with which Africans give, and Europeans receive geographical information from them. Had Major Denham thought for a moment, or had he ever looked at Clapperton's journal, he would have seen that the Mandara man, instead of having travelled south twenty days' journey, must have travelled west, or W. S. W., because, in Clapperton's Journal, p. 28, it is expressly stated, that Jacoba, or Yacoba, the name of a considerable district of country, lies not far to the southward of Katagum; that the Yeou rose among the hills between Yacoba and Adamowa. The river then seen and crossed by the Mandara man must have been the Niger, unquestionably the same as the Quolla at Nyffe, and which, moreover, has no connexion with the Kano and the Shary rivers. The Great Desert, also, is clearly the Great Desert between Tripoli and Soudan, traversed by Kafilas conducted by white men (" Arabs"), not Christians. These things are abundantly plain. The great mountains, "ten times higher" than any to be seen in Mandara, and seen by this Mandara man round Adamowa (we shall by and by see where Adamowa should be placed), are probably those mountains which, in the Quarterly Review, No. 62, we are informed lay to the south of Kashna, and in the direction of Adamowa, which are so high as to have a white cap (snow) constantly upon them.

From Kouka Major Denham set out on the 24th January 1824, to visit the great river SHARY, and which runs into LAKE TCHAD, and forms in its lower course the nominal boundary between the states of Baghermi and Bornou-the journey occupied five days. At the end of two days' journey, the party crossed the small river Gambalarum, which flows from the south-west, and the elevated lands of Mandara, entering the Lake Tchad in its S. W. corner. What the size of this river is we are not told. Bowditch (p. 18) mentions this river under the name Gabooa, crossed in the journey eastward from Bornou to Baghermi, and before the traveller on the same route reaches the Shary. On the 5th day, Major Denham's party

came to the Shary. It enters the Lake Tchad by several mouths (their geo. line of current being S. E.). At a short distance from the lake above SHOWRY, and below KUSSERY, the river divides and forms a delta on the south side of the lake. At Showey, the branch is 650 yards wide, but the depth is not stated. We are merely informed (p. 230) that this branch (the N.E. branch) has nowhere less than three feet water. From Showey Major Denham explored the course of the Shary upwards to LOGGUN, in 110 7 N. lat., a considerable town, and capital of a state dependent alternately upon Bornou and Baghermi. The river from Showey upwards, takes first a southerly course, and next inclines to the S.W. till it approaches Loggun. At this place it is 400 yards broad, the breadth of the Thames at Westminster-bridge. The magnitude of the Shary, however, is clearly not so great as the first description of it would lead us to suppose. At page 231, we are told, that above the separation of the branches, the water at the highest reaches up to the neck. On the 8th February, it was fordable, but did not reach above the arm-pits of a middle-sized man; and at page 232 it is again stated to be fordable, the water reaching to the saddles on the horses. In June, the river was found to contain a body of water "little less" than what it was found to contain in February, near Kussery, where it flows in one stream, and in February, we are also told that the "water is shallow, and the current languid," (p. 246,) and at Showey, that the banks are high and seldom overflowed, (p. 246,)" with a firm sandy bottom" on the eastern side, which latter facts alone are sufficient to show us that it is not a river of the first magnitude. During the height of the rainy season in August, the river becomes unfordable, as we find, p. 288, where the Bornou army, which had crossed it, going eastwards to attack some of their enemies, and being worsted, were compelled, in their retreat homewards, to take the road through Kanem to the northward of the Lake Tchad.

The female population of Loggun, says Denham, are great thieves," the cleverest and most immoral in all Africa." In choosing those who are accounted most beautiful and fittest for the northern markets, they are ran

ged in rows in military array, and the eye of the inspector directed along the line, selects the Hottentot protuberance that appears the most formidable and extensive. Beyond Loggun the course of the Shary remains unknown, except from confused and contradictory reports obtained by Major Denham. Considering, however, the facts just stated relative to the magnitude of the river, its current, and its moderate depth, and combining those with some of the more feasible accounts obtained by Major Denham, and all these, taken in conjunction with the information obtained by BURCKHARDT, it is extremely probable that the main branch of the Shary comes from the southward, on the eastern side of the great Mandara, or THALA range, while another branch flows from the eastward. This southerly course amongst very high mountains will account, and satisfactorily account, for the equal fulness of the stream in February and in June. Major Denham was "informed at Loggun (p. 245), that the Shary had a southerly branch running through a mountainous country to the eastward; and," continues he, "the stream, I am inclined to think, would be found to extend to Adamowa, and thence to the Lake Fittre." That it extends to Lake Fittre, we shall presently see is extremely probable; but that it can extend to Adamowa, is impossible, while the elevated Mandara plains and hills, and "MOON MOUNTAINS," intervene to prevent any stream either from crossing that part of Africa from east to west, or from west to east. TAHR, a Sheena Arab chief, who dwelt on the S.E. side of the Tchad, told Major Denham, "that he believed a river, which came from the S.W., and entered Lake Fittre, was the Shary;" but when we recollect that the Arabs, almost invariably, in the common. course of conversation, put the geographical line of the bed of the river for its course, we shall find that, instead of a river flowing into Lake Fittre from the S.W., and coming from the Shary, that it is a branch of the Shary which comes from the eastward, and probably from Lake Fittre to the Shary. The same chief told Denham, "that the Lake Fittre had a river running out of it; that Lake Fittre and the Nile of Egypt were one." Here again the chief has put

the line of the bed of the river for its course, and described as a river running out of Lake Fittre on the E. and S.E., what was really a river running into it in that quarter.

But before referring to other sources of information to elucidate this point, it is necessary to consider the magnitude and position of the LAKE TCHAD. The lake extends in an irregular form from 12o 30' N. lat. to 14° 20' N. lat., and from 140 E. long. to 17o, about 200 miles long, and 120 miles broad in its broadest part. With its depth we are altogether unacquainted, but we are informed that it overflows its banks to a great extent during the rainy season; a proof, we think, that it has no outlet, and a circumstance to which we are surprised neither Major Denham nor the Quarterly Review has adverted. Another singular circumstance regarding it is mentioned by Major Denham, namely, that, upon his first reaching it in the month of February, it in one night rose so much as to flood about two miles of country on its western borders. What could occasion this rise at this season of the year? If from the flood of a tributary river, then that river must descend from an elevated woody country very far to the southward, otherwise no rain could fall in it at that period of the year. Although Major Denham did not complete the circuit of the lake, yet he did this so far as to leave no doubt remaining that it has no outlet to the eastward. Had there been any, he must have heard of the fact from the lips of those who had travelled round it, and from those who lived in the immediate vicinity of such an outlet, if such really exists. TANGALIA, the limits of Major Denham's journey on its eastern shores, is in the entrance of the BAHR EL GHAZELLE, a valley fertile in pasturage, now dry, but through which all the traditions of the country assert that a river at one time did flow. From Tangalia through this valley to Lake Fittre is said to be a journey of four days, but other accounts make it more. It is possible, that, in ancient times, a water communication may have existed between the two lakes. Of the elevation of Lake Tchad above the level of the sea, we shall by and by speak more at length. As an instance of the confusion which reigns in all African information on geographical subjects,

we may here state, that Burckhardt was informed by a traveller from Bornou, that the Tchad was a river, and that there was no lake in his country.

The discoveries made by Major Denham have considerably changed the geographical positions of these parts of Africa, from the positions where pre vious undefined information had led us to believe they were placed. Bornou is about four degrees farther to the south, and nearly as much more to the westward, than what it was formerly reckoned. This leaves a greater space between Darfoor and Bornou than was formerly calculated, and brings the position of the intervening countries to be in a line due west from Darfoor, instead of N.W. as stated by Arab travellers, while the places westward of Bornou are found to be al most due west, instead of S.W. as reckoned by the generality of these travellers, unfortunately, hitherto, our only sources of information on these interesting subjects.

At

Tahr, given to Major Denham, and other information of a similar description, clearly arises from ignorance of these subjects, and misapprehension on their part. With this eastern branch, and its southern sources amongst the Moon range of hills, we have, and can have in a short space, a river of the magnitude of the Shary, without being obliged to make up that magnitude by bringing the Niger into it.

But with regard to the Shary receiving a branch from the eastward, Burckhardt, App. p. 479, states, from good information, that "between Kanem and the Shary, and not belonging to the Bahr el Ghazelle, is the country called DAR KARKA, the population of which pasture their cattle upon the banks of a river called BAHR EL FEYDH, or Inundating River, which empties itself into the Shary." 72, we are informed by Denham, that the King of Baghermi having been de feated, retired to the other side of a large river, to the south of his domi nions. Baghermi lies W. of Lake Fittre, and south of the Bahr el Ghazelle. Here is Denham's eastern branch of the Shary, clearly pointed out, but whether this river issues from Lake Fittre, or not, it is impossible to deter mine, though all accounts obtained by Burckhardt and others, in Eastern Africa, would lead us to believe that it did. On the other hand, Major Laing informed us, that a very intelligent Arab told him that Lake Fittre had no outlet; that a river from the south-east ran into it. He drew a map of the lake, with the river, as mentioned, entering it, but he positively asserted that the lake had no outlet, nor communication with any other lake or river. The ac count, therefore, of the Arab chief

Here it is proper to state another very striking instance of the inaccura cy of Arab travellers, in relating the course of rivers. Burckhardt, who was less likely to be deceived by them than almost any other European, states, that he was informed the Shary ran from N.E. to S. W. and entered the Tehad. He indeed adds, in a note, that one man from that quarter told him it ran in a contrary direction, namely, froin S.W. to N.E. and which we now find is really the case. Relying, however, on the former infor mation, and which it is evident Burck. hardt took as the most correct, the writer of this was led into the errors in laying down the course of the rivers in this part of Soudan, in a work on Africa, published in 1821. The present discoveries, therefore, alter greatly the geographical features of this part of Africa, as there laid down, but they confirm, not shake, the great fact, that the Niger enters the Atlantic. The distance from Lake Fittre to the Shary is, according to BowDITCH, twelve days' journey; and BROWNE, p. 448, states, the distance from CUBEABEA, and COBBE the capital of DARFOOR, to Bornou, to be sixty days' journey, which is probably very accurate, as the distance is 720 geog. miles.

Taking leave of Major Denham's journal, we come to that which ought to have been the most important and decisive portion of the volume as it regards African Geography, viz. CLAP PERTON's journey westward from KOUKA to SACKATOO, in search of the Niger. Though much important information is obtained, still the reader is sadly disappointed, and a dark cloud is suffered still to hang over the most important object of research, through which cloud, however, more rays of light had penetrated, than we have in the present volume been permitted to

sec.

But we shall try to find our way with the feeble lights which we are permitted to see and to use.

Accompanied by Dr OUDNEY, Captain Clapperton, on the 15th December 1823, left Kouka to the westward. They travelled nearly due west. At MURMUR, a town on the Bornou frontiers, Dr Oudney died from the effects of a consumption, accelerated and increased by a severe cold, which he caught on the night of the 26th December, when the FROST was so severe, that the water skins, in which the water to drink was carried, were FROZEN AS HARD AS BOARDS; indeed, the letter from Dr Oudney himself, published some time ago, and relating this event, stated that the water in the skins was frozen to a SOLID MASS. This shows a severe degree of cold, and argues a very elevated country. On the second January, after travelling sixteen days, Clapperton reached KATTAGUM, a town situated upon the River Yeou in N. lat. 12° 17', and ABOUT 11° E. longitude. In 9 days more, they reached KANO, situate in 120 N. lat. and 90 20′ E. longitude, and in 14 days' journey more they reached SACKATOO, the capital of SULTAN BELLO's territory; situated in 130 4 N. lat. and E. longitude, 6o 12'; but we have heard, and from good authority, that Captain Clapperton states the Lunar Observation taken to determine the longitude of Sackatoo, was very imperfect, so much se, as to leave it probable that an error of two degrees took place, and which would bring Sackatoo to 80 E. long., which it is extremely probable is the true position of the place.

At this point, the distance from Kouka would be 420 geog. miles, which, travelled over in 394 days, gives us nearly 11 miles each day, horizontal distance made good, the utmost, we believe, that any traveller can possibly make good, during a journeyofany continuance in the interior of Africa.

In course of the journey, and between Katagum and Kano, Clapperton passed the river Yeou, running eastward, and subsequently several small streams, which, descending from elevated lands to the southward, flow to form it; and in this part of his journey he ascertained that the sources of these branches which form the Yeou, rise amongst a chain of hills, situated some days' journey to the

south-westward. The mountains of DULL, which bore S. W. from GIRKWA, and nearly south from Kano, rose above the elevation of the country through which their path lay, to a height from 600 to 700 feet. After passing the branches of the Yeou, Clapperton came upon streams which, flowing in a similar direction with the western branches of the Yeou, soon after join, and form the river on which Sackatoo is situated, and which flows past that city to the west, or rather S.W., till it joins the Niger or Quolla, as he was informed, four or five days' journey from the capital; this junction, we have reason to believe, takes place at KABY or Cabi, which previous information marks out as the port of Houssa, or the Niger. The name of this river, on which Sackatoo is situated, is not given, nor have we any idea of its magnitude in that quarter, two things which it is surprising should have been forgotten or omitted. The Yeou, as far as Katagum, is a smooth sluggish stream; the soil around it is composed of alluvial clay, in which no stones, not even in the beds of the river, were to be seen.

This part of Clapperton's journey is so far satisfactory. It has determined the course of the Yeou, and overthrown the theory of the Quarterly Review, that that paltry stream was the great river Joliba or Niger, which was proclaimed as the fact with the greatest triumph and confidence. It enables us to see clearly the position of that part of Africa, the elevation of which shuts up the progress of the Niger eastward in those latitudes, and also the points where streams rise which flow westward, till they meet its mighty cur

rent.

Not a word, however, is said about the elevation of this portion of Africa, how great it is. This is a great want, and a great neglect. But several unerring facts are disclosed, which show us it must be very great; we shall notice them. First, the great degree of cold which, on the 26th December, in latitude 13°, and to the southward of the burning deserts of Africa, could freeze water skins as hard as boards, nay, even the water to a solid mass. Secondly, at Kano, on the 12th February, we are told (p. 55) that so severe was the cold, that a fire was necessary during the whole of the day; and in fact, that fires are necessary in their houses all the year

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