308 SIR RODERICK I. MURCHISON'S ADDRESS— AFRICA. [May 23, 1859. 



contributes its annual surplus waters to the White Nile, so may it 

 then be fairly considered as the main source of the great river ; the 

 more so when we see that its southern end is farther to the south, 

 or more remote from the embouchure, than any other portion of the 

 Nilotic water-parting.* On the other hand, the high mountains 

 which flank the great stream on the east, and probably supply it with 

 some of its waters, may by other geographers be rather viewed as 

 the main and original source. These are the only remaining portions 

 of the great problem which have to be worked out — a problem 

 which it has been the desideratum of all ages to unravel, and one 

 which, according to Lucan, made Julius Caesar exclaim, that to gain 

 this knowledge he would even abandon the civil war f — a problem 

 which Nero sent his centurions to determine, and which, by the last 

 discovery of Captain Speke, seems certainly now to approach 

 nearly to a satisfactory solution. 



Before we descend to the mouth of the Nile, and consider the 

 nature of its delta, I must say that our excellent Swiss corre- 

 spondent, M. Ziegler, has communicated to us some ybtj interesting 

 further details respecting the people who inhabit the northern 

 declivities of the mountains of Abyssinia, as transmitted by his 

 countryman, M. Werner Munzinger. The historical sketch of the 

 affairs which have taken place of late years in Abyssinia, and 

 particularly in the region bordering on the land of the Bogos, is 

 accompanied by a map and dialects of that curious people. African 

 scholars, as well as geographers, will anxiously look to the publica- 

 tion of the manuscripts of M. Munzinger : his map extends from 

 15° to 17° north latitude, and east longitude 33° to 38° east of 

 Paris. 



Delta of the Nile. Suez Canal — Whilst Captain Speke was deter- 

 mining the position of the great lake which may prove to be 

 the main source of the Nile, the distinguished Surveyor of the 

 Mediterranean, Captain Spratt, was working out the interesting 

 problem of the effect of the prevailing wave influence on the deposits 

 discharged at the mouth of the greatest of the African streams, and 



* Although both White Nile and Blue Nile are fed by many affluents, the remarkable 

 physical feature of the great stream below their junction is that in a course of 1 200 miles 

 it is not increased by the addition of any lateral waters. On this feature, as well as on the 

 parallelism of its course to the great N. and S. depression of the Red Sea, on the fertilizing 

 powers of its waters, and on the periodicity of its flood, the reader will do well to consult 

 the article ** Mediterranean Sea," Edinburgh Review, vol. cvi., which is from the pen 

 of our accomplished associate Sir Henry Holland, 

 f " Spes sit mihi certa videndi 



Niliacos fontes bellum civile relinquam." — Lucan, Book 10. 

 (As quoted by Mr. Macqueen.) 



