20 diseovertes in Africa, Sef>t. 5. 



nifhed important materials for elucidating the geo- 

 graphy of the desert. 



' But though we have now afsurance that rhe 

 Niger has its rise in a chain of mountains which 

 bound the eastern side of the kingdom of Batnbouk, 

 ~^nd that it takes its course in a contrary direction 

 from that of the Senegal and the Gambia, which How 

 on the opposite side sf the same ridge, yet the place 

 of its final destination is still unknown ; for whether 

 it reaches the ocean, or is lost, a- several of the rivtis 

 of mount Atlas are, in the immei.sity of the desert; 

 or whether, like the streams of the Caspian, it ter- 

 minates in a vast inland sea, are questions on which 

 there hangs an impenetrable cloud. 



' From a pafsage in Eschylus, in which Prome- 

 theus relates to lo the story of her future wanderings, 

 there is reason to believe that some of the ancients 

 imagined the river Niger to be the southern branch 

 of the Egyptian Nile, which others represented as 

 rising in the hills, to which they gave the fanciful 

 name of the mountains of the Moon. The pafsage 

 from Eschylus, as translated by Potter, is exprefsed 

 in the following words : 



<' Avoid t^e Arim^spian troops. 



Appro.tch them noc, bui te-.lc 



A land far dismnt, where the tawny race 

 Dwell near the fountains of the sun, and where 

 The Nigris pours his du/ky waters ; wind 

 Along his banks till thou ihalt reach the {?.\\, 

 Vv'here, from the mountains with papyrus crown'd. 

 The venerable Nile impetuous pours 

 His headlong torrent; he fliall guide thy steps 

 To those irriguous plains, whose triple sides 

 His arras .surround i there have the fates decreed 

 Thee and thy sons to form the lengthtn'd line.'* 



