184 Course and probable Termination of the Niger. [Aug. 



where there are and can be no rivers, but also because it is now well 

 known that the general course of the Niger, that is, Park's Joliba or 

 Quorra, is full six degrees and a half to the southward of nineteen 

 degrees north." 



Not to multiply examples, it may be sufficient to aver that the lati- 

 tudes of Ptolemy are shewn by his advocate to be frequently wrong, 

 and that, too, in places of the utmost importance. This, to us simple- 

 minded folk, seems to be a strange way of rescuing an antient ally 

 " from gross inconsistencies, and placing his geography on the basis of 

 truth." 



Upon these obvious miscalculations, the General (altering one of 

 Ptolemy's latitudes) has constructed a map of Central Africa. 



" The Tchad," says Sir R., " I placed at once in its proper latitude 

 and longitude, according to Denham and Clapperton, in order to see 

 what would become of it amidst Ptolemy's geograjjhical conditions and 

 dicta ; for, as we are sure about tlie existence and actual site of the 

 Tchad, I wished to put Ptolemy to this experimentum crucis, and he has 

 stood it well." — P, 45. 



We are somewhat sceptical as to the " actual site of the Tchad." We 

 have our reasons for supposing that the geographical computations of, 

 at least, one of the modern discoverers are not to be implicitly relied on. 

 Nor are the published narratives of Clapperton and Denham by any 

 means calculated to remove our suspicions. 



In the joint publication of Majors Denham and Clapperton, the fol- 

 lowing editorial note, by Mr. Barrow, appears on a passage in Clapper- 

 ton's text, relative to a statement of the captain descriptive of a night's 

 frost in Central Africa : — 



"It is much to be regretted, that the state of the thermometer was 

 not noticed, more particularly as a question has arisen as to the correct- 

 ness of this statement, wliich is however repeated by Doctor Oudney 

 (Clapperton's colleague) almost in the same words." 



It is, we say, much more to be regretted that a register of all astrono- 

 mical observations made on the mission had not been regularly kept by 

 these intrepid travellers. It is true that Clapperton* sometimes speaks 

 of such and such a latitude having been obtained by means of a "meri- 

 dional altitude," and has, once or twice, even gone into the minutiae to 

 mention " the sun's lower limb :" but as to the means by which the 

 longitude of the various places visited in these inland regions has been 

 ascertained, the captain, or rather his editor, is somewhat silent ; and, 

 after parting from Clapperton, the major, on the same subject, is totally 

 mute. How their map has been constructed, and the latitudes and 

 longitudes ascertained of those districts, which had only been explored 

 by JMajor D., we are at a loss to conjecture. In inland countries, to be 

 correct in geogi-aphical computations, it is essential that the discoverer be 

 not only a good astronomer, but a first-rate mathematician. Unfortu- 

 nately for science. Major D. was neither; and, as for Clapperton, though 

 in this respect, the most competent person of the party, he was, at most, 

 no more than an ordinary navigator. 



With reference to the single alteration made by the General ^in the 



• In the narrative published jointly with that of Denham P. 7. 



