214: MACQUEEN ON THE GEOGRAPHY OF CENTRAL AFRICA. [May 9, 1859. 



nation or tribe living in the neighbourhood of the lake being the same with 

 that of the moon : mistakes in mpdern times are traceable to associations much 

 weaker than this. 



But a full discussion of Captains Burton and Speke's labours must be 

 reserved for a future occasion; meanwhile we are satisfied that important 

 geogi'aphical discoveries have been made. 



Mr. Macqueen said that if the Nile or its sources were to the south of the 

 Equator, it would not fall where the Egyptian expedition had left? it, viz. 

 at 3^ 30' north on the 26th of January, but it then fell so fast that the 

 expedition did not proceed. As a proof that the Nile did not rise to the south 

 of the Equator, it was only necessary to mention the fact that the rains on the 

 south of the Line commenced in December and in January and February, and 

 became very strong; the river would be flooded, therefore, in January, in 

 place of falling : this he thought settled the point beyond question. He ad- 

 mitted the Nile must have more sources than one, but not one of them 

 went so far south ; if it did, the principal branch would have certainly been 

 flooded in January, whereas in that month it fell;: but at the end of March, 

 exactly as the sun came back towards the Equator and the rains fell to the 

 north, it would rise again. 



Colonel Sykes observed that tropical rains north of the Equator com- 

 menced in June. 



Mr. Macqueen said he had been speaking of the south. 



Captain Speke obtained his information of the countries tending north- 

 wards, along the western borders of the Lake, from highly intelligent Arab 

 merchants, from whom he had previously received some excellent and trust- 

 worthy information, and he felt he might rely on what they had stated, in 

 regard to the ground under dispute, more especially as it corroborated his 

 own observations made on the Malagarazi River. 



