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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



of early impressions. At his first school 

 one of the masters was the son of a mis- 

 sionary in South Africa. The stories he 

 told of the wonders of that distant country 

 took possession of the youthful fancy of 

 his pupil, and turned his mind toward the 

 land where he was to achieve such signal 

 renown. Dr. Schweinfurth devoted himself 

 from boyhood to the science of botany. 

 He studied at Heidelberg and Berlin, where 

 he took his degree as doctor of philosophy. 

 In 1860, when about twenty-four years of 

 age, his interest in Africa was intensified by 

 the circumstance that a collection of plants 

 from the region of the Nile was placed in 

 his hands to arrange and describe. While 

 engaged in this work, a yearning came over 

 him to behold these plants in all their bloom 

 and beauty in their native haunts, and so 

 added an immediate stimulus to his life-long 

 interest in that strange country. Accord- 

 ingly, in 1863 he left Berlin for Egypt, and, 

 after botanizing in the Delta of the Nile, 

 along the shores of the Ked Sea, in Abys- 

 sinia and Khartoom, for two years and a half, 

 he went back to Europe with an empty 

 purse and a splendid collection of plants, 

 though obtained at the additional cost of 

 repeated attacks of fever. But this expedi- 

 tion only whetted his appetite for African 

 exploration, and he soon submitted to the 

 Royal Academy of Science a plan for the 

 botanical survey of the equatorial districts 

 lying west of the Nile, portions of which 

 were still wholly unknown. His proposals 

 were accepted, and the expenses of the en- 

 terprise were met by the " Humboldt Institu- 

 tion of Natural Philosophy and Travels," in 

 Berlin. In July, 1868, he again landed in 

 Egypt, and in the first chapter of this work 

 he records the incidents of his journey till 

 his arrival at Khartoom. After a short de- 

 lay he proceeded up the White Nile and Ga- 

 zelle. He says : 



" In the early morning of the 22d of Feb- 

 ruary w found ourselves at the Meshera, the 

 landing-place of all who resort to the Ga- 

 zelle. . . . Deducting the days on which we 

 had not proceeded, our boats had been thirty 

 days in going from Khartoom to the Mesh- 

 era. I had been anxious to make a good in- 

 vestigation of the river-banks ; otherwise the 

 voyage might easily be accomplished in 

 twenty days." 



As a result of this study, several pages 



are devoted to explanations of this river 

 system and the topography of the swampy 

 region of the Meshera, where he was com- 

 pelled to linger through February and March, 

 botanizing in swamps, wading among papy- 

 rus-clumps, and exposed to the dreaded 

 malaria of this unhealthy region. His im- 

 munity from sickness he attributes in part 

 to the three doses of quinine, of eight or 

 nine grains each, which he took daily. Half 

 the travelers who have ventured into these 

 swamps have succumbed to fever. Here 

 Miss Tunne's expedition suffered a loss of 

 five out of its nine European members, and 

 among them Dr. Steudner, the botanist of 

 the expedition. Here Heuglin lost most of 

 his time by continual relapses of fever. 

 And in this region Le Saint, a French geo- 

 graphical explorer, had died a few months 

 before. From this place he took his start 

 for the interior. He thus describes his 

 company : 



" The number of our caravan was a lit- 

 tle under 500. Of these the armed men 

 amounted to nearly 200, and constituted a 

 force with which we might have crossed the 

 largest state of Central Africa unmolested. 

 Our course for six days would be through a 

 notoriously hostile country, so that this pre- 

 caution was quite necessary ; but the cara- 

 van, extending fully half a mile, was of a 

 magnitude to require great order and circum- 

 spection. ... To a naturalist on his trav- 

 els, the employment of men as a means of 

 transport appears the perfection of conven- 

 ience. Apart from the dispatch and order in 

 starting, and the regular continuous progress, 

 he enjoys the incalculable advantage of being 

 able to reach his baggage at any moment, and 

 to open and close again, without loss of time, 

 any particular package. Any one who has 

 ever experienced the particular annoyances of 

 camel-transport will be aware of the compara- 

 tive comfort of this mode of proceeding. A 

 few asses accompanied the caravan, and the 

 Governor of Ghattas's Seriba had been courte- 

 ous enough to send me his own saddle-ass, 

 but I preferred to trust myself to my own 

 legs. Eiding a badly-saddled donkey is al- 

 ways infinitely more fatiguing to me than 

 any exertion which may be requisite to keep 

 up with the forced marches of the light- 

 footed Nubians ; besides, I had other objects 

 in view than mere progress ; I wished to ob- 

 serve and take notes of any thing that came 

 in my way, and to collect plants and what- 

 ever else might be of interest. Thus, en- 

 tirely on foot, I began the wanderings which, 



