246 Dr Beke on the Sources of the Nile 



with an able commentary, by M. d'Avezac, in the Bulletin of 

 the Geographical Society of Paris,* sufficiently establishes 

 this to be the case ; only fi-om the circumstance that the tra- 

 veller seems to have made his inquiries on the erroneous 

 assumption of the identity of the Wabbi of Makdashu vs^ith 

 the Wabbi-Giweyna or Juba river (an error which he has 

 since admittedt), his commentator was very naturally misled, 

 though not without strong misgivings on his part, that the 

 particulars furnished must, of necessity, be applicable to more 

 than one stream.;}: 



M. d'Abbadie was informed that the Wabbi is composed 

 of seven branches, of which the sources come from the Nile, 

 another instance of the vulgar native error, but which that 

 traveller justly explains as meaning " the country of Upper 

 Ethiopia ;"§ and both Major Harris and M. Rochet concur in 

 placing one, at least, of the sources of this river in or near a 

 large lake situate in Korchassi,|| a country lying to the south 

 of Lake Zuwai ; the approximate position of which lake in 

 Korchissi has been already statedi^ to be in about 7° N. lat., 

 and at the edge of the table-land in about 39° E. long. 



Thus, then, we have the remarkable fact, established on 

 fair, even if not absolutely conclusive evidence, that there 

 exist three rivers possessing a common origin ; that is to say, 

 having their sources, or some of their sources, contiguous to 

 one another in about 7° N. lat. and 39" E. long. ; two ..of which 

 rivers flow towards the Indian Ocean, and the third has its 

 course towards Egypt ; and all three bear, on the one hand, 

 the generic name Wqbbi, or " the river," and, on the other 

 hand, the not less geneinc designation of the Nile. 



Hence we may perceive — and Captain Seton himself drew 

 attention to the same circumstance** — that four centuries 

 before our era, the existence of the great water-parting of 



* 2d Ser., vol. xvii. 



t Ibid., 3d Ser., vol. iii., p. 55. X Ibid., vol. xvii., p. 109. 



§ Ibid., p. 97. 



II Trans, of Bomb. Geogr. Soc, 1841-44, p. 68; Kochet, Second Voyaged Choa, 

 p. 274. And see Journ. Roy. Geogr. Soc, vol. xvii. p. 47, note, 

 % See page 231. 

 ** Trans, of Bomb. Geogr. Soc., p. 31. 



