210 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



It has been conjectured that, under the 12th degree of north latitude, id 

 the place where the English travellers then were, water cannot freeze 

 except on those mountains which are from 4 to 5,000 metres (a metre, 39 

 inches,) above the level of the sea: this calculation is greatly exaggerated. 

 The persons who have hazarded the assertion seem to be ignorant that it 

 sometimes freezes in the deserts of Lybia, at only a few hundred metres 

 above the level of the sea : these deserts are, it is true, a few degrees further 

 towards the north, but they still lie very close to the torrid zone. It is not 

 impossible but that circumstances, peculiar to these regions, may cause a 

 considerable diminution in the temperature, and it would be safer to wait, 

 before we form any decided opinion upon the subject, until the heights of 

 the ground shall have been published ; a piece of information which has 

 been very dearly purchased, since it has cost the life of the most enlightened 

 man belonging to the expedition. We may add, that if the mountains that 

 lie at about a hundred leagues to the west of Bornou are really of a great 

 elevation, (a fact which we do not dispute) as, on the other hand, the source 

 of the Niger is situated (according to Major Laing) only at the height of 

 500 metres, the learned conjecture made by Mr. Walckenaer will be strongly 

 confirmed, namely, that the transversal chain of mountains increases pro- 

 gressively, according as it advances, from the west to the east, until its 

 union with the principal chain, which appears placed under the 22d degree 

 of longitude, and the 8th degree of north latitude. 



The same learned observer has judiciously placed Tombuctoo at 2 J 

 degrees farther towards the west than it was laid down by Major Rennell, 

 after the observations of Mungo Park. The positions of Silla, on the Niger, 

 is also laid down upon the maps too far to the east; and it is not improbable 

 that the first of these towns may lie under a more western longitude, since 

 Bakel and Fort Saint Joseph, according to the recent observations of some 

 French officers, communicated by Baron Roger, Governor of Senegal, ought - 

 to be placed about 2 degrees farther to the west than they are laid down oy 

 Mungo Park. Every thing announces that the cities of Central Africa are 

 situated nearer to the Atlantic than was supposed ; and this discovery is a 

 point of no small importance, as far as regards the relations which it is hoped 

 to establish with these countries : a diminution of a hundred leagues in a 

 journey through so difficult a country, is a sort of conquest for the science 

 of Geography. 



If we had not laid it down as a rule not to make mention in this notice of 

 the reports of the native Africans, we should cite those of tw'0 natives, who 

 were separately interrogated by M Roger, and who agree in saying that 

 Djenne is situated on the right'bBmk of the Dialliba (or Niger), as also the 

 city of Sego, and that this royal residence is formed of four distinct and 

 isolated towns. Mungo Park knew of the existence of these four towns; 

 but it appears that Tie stopped upon the left bank of the river, without 

 attempting to penetrate into them. The same individuals informed 

 M . Roger, that the great city of Tombuctoo is situated close to the Dialliba, 

 at only two leagues distance from the left bank: it is even still nearer, 

 according to M. Adrien Partarrieu. The town of Kabra serves as its port, 

 in the same manner as Boulaq is the port of Grand Cairo; and the carriers 

 of merchandize make the journey twice, and even thrice, in the course of 

 the day. To conclude; M. Partarrieu only mentions one river, that of the 

 Dialliba, and says nothing whatever of the Gambarou, except merely that 

 a river of that name flows at a great distance towards the NNE. 



Other observations, made by M. Partarrieu, agree with those of the 

 French officers, and those of M. Beaufort, in leading us to conclude that the 

 longitudes, as laid down by Park, are placed too much to the east ; and it is 

 even supposed, that he made a considerable mistake in laying down the 

 latitude of the spot where he left the river Gambia. 



Such is the state of the last discoveries made by Europeans in the interior 

 of Africa— I speak here of those communicated to us by ocular witnesses. 

 ■What an immense void still remains to be filled up in the chart, containing 

 these discoveries alone ! What a space still remains unvisited, between the 

 twenty or five-and-twenty leading lines followed by travellers ! We have 

 calculated the total extent of these lines which have been traced within the 

 last forty years, and we have estimated it at 2,200 geographical miles, even 

 including "the excursions of Poncet in 1698, and those of Bruce made from 

 1768 to 1773. Let us suppose that each traveller constantly embraced 



