May 28, I860.] NIGER EXPEDITION. 183 



Farther to the north I have to direct your attention to a remark- 

 able exploration by Du Chaillu, an American naturalist, of French 

 descent, sent out by the Academy of Philadelphia. I speak of his 

 discoveries in the equatorial regions of West Africa. That traveller, 

 during a period of four years, spent in wanderings in pursuit of 

 natural history, which has resulted in a very valuable collection, 

 discovered that what had been hitherto considered as two distinct 

 rivers, namely, the Nazareth and Mexias, running into the sea at 

 lats. s. 0° 41' and 0° 56' respectively, are, in fact, the delta forming 

 mouths of a single important stream, which also inosculates and in 

 part discharges itself through the Fernando Yaz or Camma. His 

 travels extended to a veiy considerable distance in an easterly 

 direction. He found the main stream, called the Ogobai, to be 

 formed by two enormous tributaries, the Eembo Apingi to the south 

 and the Eembo Okandu to the north. He reached the former of 

 these at an estimated distance of 350 miles of travel from the 

 western coast, and found it a noble stream, 500 yards broad, from 

 3 to 4 fathoms deep, and running with great force. 



Dr. Barth suspects the Ogobai to be the lower part of that river 

 which he made out from information as running westward many 

 days' journey south from Wadai, and he believes there is a vast 

 field for future discovery along the northern branch of that river, 

 viz. the Eembo Okandu. Du Chaillu has thus opened access to 

 that great drainage of which Bowditch had already collected so 

 much information, and we have now unexpectedly found an im- 

 mense river — a rival, perhaps, in length and importance to either 

 the Congo or the Zambesi, apparently more accessible to Europeans 

 than either of them, and running into the sea at the very waist of 

 Africa (if such an expression be permitted), the very place whence 

 the central part of the equatorial regions of that continent may be 

 reached at the least distance from the coast. 



The results obtained during the last year by Dr. Baikie are not 

 yet in our hands, neither does a decision appear to have been yet 

 arrived at concerning the future destination of this expedition. 

 Lieutenant Glover, r.n., has arrived in England from the Niger, 

 and is preparing his surveys for the Admiralty. 



A report has been circulated referring to a contemplated expedi- 

 tion of the French by two military detachments, the one from 

 Senegal, and the other from Algeria, to converge upon Timbuctu. 

 In the mean time the district even immediately adjacent to Algeria 

 is so far inaccessible to the French that the recent journey of 



