78 REPORT—1848. ’ 
qualities take a similar direction, and gradually and imperceptibly pass into each other 
till they become bituminous coals on the south side of the coal-field. 
Remarks on the Sources of the White Nile. By FERDINAND WERNE, late 
attached to the Expedition sent by Mohammed Ali Pasha to explore the Nile 
(communicated by Sir Ropert H. Scuomsurck, K.R.E.)*. 
The author distinctly contradicted the discovery, recently announced to have been 
made by M. Antoine d’Abbadie, of the source of the Nile in 7° 49! N. lat. and 
34° 38’ long. E. from Paris. In 1840-41, the Egyptian expedition to which M. 
Werne belonged, ascended the main stream of the Nile as far as the country of Bari, 
in the fourth degree of north latitude, and they were there told by the natives that 
the sources of the Nile lie still further to the south. 
From the formation and direction of the mountains whose valleys are watered by 
the Nile, an eye-witness would at once infer that the river comes from a distance of 
several degrees further south ; and Lakono, the king of Bari, and his people invariably 
pointed to the south wher describing the situation of the sources of the river. The 
European officers of the expedition arrived in Bari with the preconceived opinion that 
the Nile came from the east, and they were, in consequence, the more precise and 
careful in their inquiries respecting its source ; but by no means could they induce the 
natives to deviate from their original statement that the river comes from the south. 
Lakono himself, who asserted that he had been to the country of Any4n (Anjan) 
in which the head streams of the Nile have their origin, said that the water in the 
four rivulets whose confluence forms the main stream, came only to his ankles; and 
as, above the extreme point reached by the expedition, the river comes direct from 
among the mountains in the south in the form of a turbulent stream, running between 
steep banks and over a rocky bed; and as, further up, the declivity of its bed is ap- 
parently much greater ; M. Werne regarded it as physically impossible that M. d’Ab- 
badie’s alleged source should be that of the Nile. In his opinion, M. d’Abbadie’s river 
is a tributary either of the Blue River or of the Sobat; and he expressed his conviction 
that Ptolemy and the natives of Bari will be found to be correct in their statements 
respecting the position of the sources of the Nile, and that those sources are in the 
regions near the equator, where we shall also find the Mountains of the Moon. 
The Dean of Westminster read a letter from the Rev. Dr. Moberley, describing a 
large Plesiosaurus discovered in lias at the alum-works of Lord Mulgrave at Kettleness 
near Whitby: length of the head, 3 feet 2 inches; neck, 5 feet 10 inches; back, 
7 feet 1 inch; tail, 6 feet 10 inches; total, 22 feet 11 inches, Width of anterior 
paddles nearly 13 feet. 
The Dean of Westminster exhibited a Map of part of North Wales, and sketches of 
rocks in the valleys around Snowdon, and pointed out the various indications of the - 
former existence of glaciers in these valleys. One of the best localities for observing 
the effect of the moving masses of ice which formerly occupied the seven valleys that 
descend from Snowdon, is at Pont Aberglaslyn near Bedd-gelert. Near Capel Cerig 
also there is a great extent of naked rock exhibiting the effects of glacial action, 
The most obvious exposures of the effects of ice are in the valley of Llanberris and in 
the valley of Nant-Francan. Moraines occur on the margin of Llyn Ogwyn and of 
Llyn Idwell, having been forced across these lakes when filled with ice. In all these 
valleys the surface of the rocks below the superficial soil is rounded, furrowed and 
striated in directions parallel to the sides of each valley. At Llyn-y-Gader near Bedd- 
gelert there were very remarkable naked, round-topped hillocks, worn and smoothed 
by friction of the ice. 
The Dean then gave an account of the principal phenomena of glacial action in 
Switzerland, where they are believed to have formerly extended very much further 
than at present. 
* Since published, by M. Werne, in an appendix to his work, ‘ Expedition zur Entdeckung 
der Quellen des Weissen Nil,’ 8vo. Berlin, 1848. An English translation of this work, by 
Mr. C. W. O’Reilly, has also been published in 2 vols, 8vo; London, 1849, 
