Jan. 9, I860.] AND TRAVELS IN THE INTEEIOR OF AFRICA. 41 



the efforts of their countrymen, one proceeding from the north to the south, 

 and the other from the south-east to the north-west, the course of that great 

 river, so remarkable in an historical and a geographical point of view, the 

 Nile, might, at no distant period, be traced out and satisfactorily established 

 by the investigations of Englishmen in connexion with this Society. He was 

 very happy to be able to announce that Her Majesty's Government had been 

 pleased to grant to the Society, in support of Captain Speke's intended expedi-^ 

 tion, the sum of 2500?. This amount had been awarded in a manner that 

 must be most satisfactory to the Society, because it had been handed over to 

 the Council to be expended entirely at their own discretion. While Captain* 

 Speke then would proceed to finish the explorations that were begun in his 

 previous expedition under Captain Burton, he trusted that Mr. Petherick 

 would continue in an opposite direction those of which he had just given some 

 account, and he hoped the time might not be far distant when these two dis- 

 tinguished explorers might meet and greet each other, arriving from different 

 directions, on the banks of the White Nile. He was glad to avail himself of 

 this opportunity to express the hope that Her Majesty's Consul in those parts 

 might receive from Government that support to which they, as geographers, 

 must feel that he was fully entitled. 



Captain J. H. Speke, f.e.g.s., could not say positively that any decided 

 relation existed between the Bahr-el-Ghazal and the Victoria Nyanza. 



All the branches of the Upper Nile appeared to him to have their heads 

 directed south-easterly, tending towards the Nyanza, but more especially so 

 the Bahr-el-Ghazal from the position in 4P n. lat. where Mr. Petherick 

 crossed it. 



The granitic hills which Mr. Petherick here sees out-cropping to an altitude 

 of 2000 feet above the level of the northern country, might be a continuation 

 of the same description of hills we hear of at Gondokoro, on the White Nile, 

 also in 4° n. lat. If this were the case, it was evident the whole country 

 has, thence northward to the Mediterranean, an evenly declining slope from 

 2000 feet to the sea-level. Of this fact the analogous descriptions of the 

 sluggish nature of the two great streams in a measure bear proof. 



These hills appeared to form a kind of steppe in the country, and act as a 

 support to the great interior plateau, which is about 4000 feet above the sea, 

 as was determined by him on discovering the Nyanza, which is at that alti- 

 tude, and lies about 200 miles or so to the immediate southward of the range. 

 As these two streams, the Bahr-el-Ghazal and Bahr-el-Abiad, have both been 

 seen to intersect this range, and as a third large river, called Lout or Modj, 

 which, as well as the former two, comes from the direction of the Lake, it would 

 be a pure matter of speculation to say which of the three may drain the 

 Nyanza. Indeed until some one goes there to examine the country nothing could 

 be determined. 



From the relative position of the Lake to these streams, as well as the 

 general character and appearance of the Lake itself. Captain Speke was still of 

 the conviction that it will eventually prove to be the principal source of the 

 Nile. 



Sir Eodeeick Muechison, v.p.e.g.s., congratulated the Society upon the 

 value of the communication made that evening. The President had very pro- 

 perly called their attention to the great object of all the African explorations, 

 particularly those concerning the sources of the Nile, with which the Geo- 

 graphical Society had been occupied for several years. He believed that civili- 

 zation could only be introduced into Africa by showing to its inhabitants 

 that we were anxious to deal with them fairly and equitably. Dr. Livingstone 

 had often told him that the first step to be taken in civilizing the African was 

 to barter fairly with him, and teach him that he could gain much by attaching 

 himself to an honest Englishman. 



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