GEOGRAPHY AND ANTIQUITIES. 



EXPLORATIONS IN EASTERN AFRICA. 



DR. KNOBLECHER, the Pope's Vicar-General in Central Africa, has 

 recently returned to Europe, and published an account of his discoveries 

 and travels. He has been further into Soudan than any previous trav- 

 eller, having penetrated on the White Nile, or Bahr-el-Abiad, as that 

 river is called in Arabic, to within four degrees of the Equator. At 

 this point the traveller ascended a mountain called Logwek, and saw 

 the Nile trending away in a south-westerly direction, until it vanished 

 between two mountains. The last natives he met with, the Bary ne- 

 groes, informed him that beyond those mountains the river came straight 

 from the south. The Nile was in 4 45' north latitude, 200 French 

 metres broad, (about 625 English feet,) and from three to five metres 

 deep. 



Such an abundance of water in the dry season indicates with toler- 

 able certainty that the river rises at a great distance, in some unknown 

 range of mountains, probably beyond the Equator. Even if we assume 

 the origin of the Nile to be a great lake or internal sea, as the obscure 

 but unconfirmed tradition declares, the existence of such a lake cannot 

 be supposed without the vicinity of a lofty range of mountains, whose 

 springs and brooks feed it in the dry season. Dr. Knoblecher saw 

 from the summit of Logwek, on the furthest edge of the horizon, a 

 range of heights whose exact form was lost in the distance. 



Doctor K. and his associates have founded a missionary establish- 

 ment at Khartoum, the junction of the White and Blue Nile, from 

 which point other expeditions are to be sent to the interior. 



EXPEDITION INTO THE INTERIOR OF AFRICA. 



IT will be remembered that early in 1850, Mr. Richardson, an agent 

 of the British Government, together with two German savants, and a 

 select escort, started from Tripoli on an expedition to explore the in- 

 terior of Africa. Intelligence of the party has been received up to 

 August, 1851. Mr. Richardson died in the kingdom of Bornou, in 

 March ; the other members of the party were well. The expedition 

 had passed through many dangers and difficulties, with no greater mis- 

 fortune than the loss of a little property, of which it was robbed by 



