248 Dr Beke on (he Sources of the Nile 



taries, an opinion was expressed* as to the probable identity 

 of this river, the Bahr el Ghazal or Keilah, with Ptolemy's 

 second arm of the Nile. The reasons which have since con- 

 vinced me that such an opinion is untenable, a,re evident in 

 the preceding pages. Without then entering upon the con- 

 sideration of this great western arm of the Nile, the subject 

 of which is beyond the scope of the present inquirj^ it is suf- 

 ficient to remark, that, as the attention of Herodotus, when 

 at Elephantine, would seem to have been more particularly, 

 if not exclusively, directed to this western arm, which would 

 have been the best known to the merchants trading with 

 those portions of the interior of Africa which are now repre- 

 sented by the countries of Kordofdn and Darfur ; so he may 

 not unnaturally have been led to reject the previous state- 

 ment of the priest of Sais, as to the sources of the Nile being 

 situate in the south. On the other hand, as the knowledge 

 of the geographer of Alexandria respecting the upper Nile, 

 was principally acquired from the merchants and seamen of 

 that city, who traded with India and the east coast of Africa, 

 we can well understand that he would, thi'ough them, have be- 

 come acquainted with the existence of the two arms of that 

 river, which rise in the mountains of Eastern Africa ; and 

 having, in the manner already explained,t fallen into the very 

 natural error of imagining that one of these arms had its ori- 

 gin at a considerable distance to the west of the other, he 

 may well have been led away from the separate considera- 

 tion of any more westerly arm, such as is described by Hero- 

 dotus, and also by many subsequent writers. 



In closing these remarks, I will venture to express my con- 

 viction, that the fact that Ptolemy's two main streams of the 

 Nile have their sources at the edge of the table-land running 

 parallel to the east coast of Africa, has now been established 

 as fully and satisfactorily as it is possible to be, in the absence 

 of that direct and absolute proof which can only be furnished 

 by the explorations of intelligent and veracious Europeans. 

 It may confidenth be anticipated, that the final solution of 

 this most interesting problem of geography will not much 



* Page 84. t Pages 236, 237. 



