A Dissertation on the Course and Probable Termination of the Niger |
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Common terms and phrases
Abiad ancient Arabic Atlantic authority Bahr Berissa Bilmah branch called Cape Verd Cape Verd Islands Cattigara Central Africa Clapperton Congo course D'Anville desart Digamma doubt east Edrisi Egyptian Nile error Ferro Fertit flow Fortunate Isles Garamantica Pharanx Geir and Ni-Geir geographical Ghana Ghazel give Greek article Greenwich Herodotus Homer immense implies island Kowarra Kowarrama lake Domboo lake Fittre lake Nigrites lake Nuba Lake of Ghana lake Tchad lakes Chelonidæ language large river latitude lemy Libyan Lake longitude Major Denham Major Rennell marshes of Wangara Mauritania means meridian Misselad Mount Mandrus Mount Thala Mount Usargola Nasamones Negroes Niger Nile of Bornou Nile of Egypt opinion Pliny pretty probably Ptolemy says Ptolemy's Quolla Quorra reason river of Bornou running Salathus Salla salt sand Sionita speaking stream Sultan Bello's suppose Tchad tells tion Toccrur Tombuctoo travellers tude Ulil Wangara word Nile writer Zaire τε
Popular passages
Page 135 - I deny to myself an indulgence in the dream, if dream it be, — which presented to me the great Nile of Central Africa rolling forwards majestically to the shores of the Mediterranean, through countries then swarming with people, and animated by intelligence ; and through vallies either bespangled by cities, or enamelled by the varied productions of a luxuriant soil, fertilized by the waters of a noble stream whose very existence has been for centuries forgotten...
Page 70 - Desert, backed by other deserts whose names and numbers we do not even know, but which we have endeavoured to class under the ill-defined denomination of Sahara, — advancing, I repeat, to the annihilation of Egypt and all her glories with the silence, but with the certainty too, of all-devouring time ! There is something quite appalling in the bare contemplation of this inexorable onward march of wholesale death to kingdoms, to mighty rivers, and to nations; the more so, when we reflect that the...
Page 67 - Thus has been rubbed out from the face of the earth a river which had once its cities, its sages, its warriors, its works of art, and its inundations like the classic Nile ; but which so existed in days of which we have scarcely a record.
Page 70 - In the same way shall perish the Nile of Egypt and its valley — its pyramids, its temples, and its cities ! The Delta shall become a plashy quicksand — a second Syrtis ! and the Nile shall cease to exist from the Lower Cataract downwards...
Page 70 - There is something quite appalling in the bare contemplation of this inexorable onward march of wholesale death to kingdoms, to mighty rivers, and to nations; the more so, when we reflect that the destruction must, from its nature, be not only complete, but eternal, on the spot on which it falls !' But from these sublime and awful contemplations, let us return to Boussa, and examine the actual steps by which Sir Rufane conducts the Niger through so strange and devious a course. First, as has been...
Page 110 - ... we have seen nothing of the kind before, so we are not likely to see in the Niger the phenomenon of a great river first of all taking one decided course for a great many hundred miles in one direction, and then turning back towards the very point of the compass from which it had started, — so as to enter the ocean by a sort of...
Page 175 - ... appearance at Kattagum, four days WSW of the capital of Bornou, where it runs into a lake, called the Tsaad. Beyond this lake, a large river runs through Baghermee, and is called the Gambarro and Kamadakoo ; the word Nil being also used for the same stream. — Thus far are we able to trace the Nil, and all other accounts are merely conjectural. All agree, however, that by one route or other, these waters join the great Nile of Egypt, to the southward of Dongola.
Page 31 - Chelonidae, with the Garamantica Pharanx, and other places he mentions in speaking of the Geir, when I found that in laying them down I had exhausted all the longitude I had at my disposal; and that by a formidable land slip of seven degrees eastward, I was overlying almost the whole of Bornou, the whole of Darfoor, and all the western part of Abyssinia ; and the Lakes Chelonidae and Nuba and the Garamantica Pharanx had taken possession of the bed of the Egyptian Nile, whose general course was in...
Page 62 - Solinus, is called in, who administers a ' vadosum ac reciprocum mare,' and describes the earth as being there — ' perflabilem ibi terram, ventis penetrantibus subitam vim spiritus citissimi aut revomere maria, aut resorbere.' 'This,' says the General, ' is just the effect I should suppose would be produced by a river emerging from sands meeting with the sea on a level with itself; indeed the description is complete, and the words " perflabilem," and " revomere maria aut resorbere,
Page 63 - Bilmah, could reach the sea: and, thirdly, the very phaenomenon which I have contended would occur if the river were any where dammed up in its passage, actually does occur in the very line between the Lake Domboo and the Syrtis, if any reliance can be placed on the maps we have, near the...