May26, 185G.] AFRICA. 157 



We may mention here that M. Eaifenel has at length published 

 an account of his failure to penetrate to the interior of Africa from 

 the French settlements on the Senegal. 



Comte d'Escayrac de Lauture has presented the Society with a 

 copy of his Memoir on Soudan, accompanied by a map, in which the 

 positions of the principal towns and the courses of the rivers in 

 Central Africa are discussed with great ability and research, and 

 the habits of the people are also described. The Count has just 

 proposed to attempt, with the assistance of the Egyptian Govern- 

 ment, the ascent of the Nile to its sources. 



The enterprising Sardinian trader, M. Brun-Eollet, whose esta- 

 blishment on the White Nile was mentioned in my noble prede- 

 cessor's last Address, having returned to his outpost of exploration 

 and commerce in that region, has since penetrated for a considerable 

 distance along the Misselad ; and we are indebted to our Corre- 

 sponding member, M. le Chev. Negri, of Turin, for the following 

 account of M. Brun's proceedings, dated from the banks of the 

 Misselad, Feb. 1, 1856:— 



" After a month's research M. Brun-RoUet came to reconnoitre 

 the lake, by which the waters of the Misselad and of the Modj or 

 Liit communicate with the Bahr el Abiad. He found it about 

 50 leagues in length from north to south, and discovered the 

 entrance of the Misselad into the lake. He entered the Misselad 

 with three boats (barques), and an escort of 23 soldiers, obtained 

 from an Egyptian post recently established at the confluence of the 

 Sanbat, in the Bahr el Abiad ; and the intrepid traveller had already 

 ascended the river for nearly 40 leagues, with the determination to 

 push his exploration as far as possible. The Misselad appears to be 

 so large and deep that M. Brun-RoUet, who has previously visited 

 the Blue Nile, or Bahr el Azrek, as well as the White Nile, or Bahr 

 el Abiad, declares that he has no doubt of the Misselad being the true 

 Nile. It appears that during the rainy season this river inundates 

 an immense extent of country. The vegetation of this region is 

 magnificent, and the reception offered by the inhabitants, although 

 not always favourable, had not been hostile. M. Brun-Rollet and 

 his companions, among whom is Madame Brun-Rollet, a young 

 Marseillaise, continued to enjoy excellent health." 



made in the Third number of the Proceedings of the Society ; and it is with ranch 

 regret that I now hear of the decease of a young French explorer, M. Couturier, 

 which took place at Brezina, an oasis in the Sahara, where he had stopped some 

 time in order to acquire a knowledge of some of the native dialects. 



