ILLUSTRATIONS (23). SOURCES OF THE NILE. 117 



were still on the coast of Mombaza. They have established 

 in the vicinity, among the Wakamba tribe, a missionary 

 station, called Rabbay Empie, which seems likely to be very 

 useful for geographical discoveries. Families of the Wakamba 

 tribe have advanced westward five or six hundred miles into 

 the interior of the country, as far as the upper course of the 

 river Lusidji, the great lake Nyassi or Zambeze (5 south 

 lat. ?), and the vicinal sources of the Nile. The expedition 

 to these sources, which Friedrich Bialloblotzky, of Hanover, 

 is preparing to undertake" (by the advice of Beke), "is to 

 start from Mombaza. The Nile coming from the west 

 referred to by the ancients is probably the Bahr-el-Ghazal, or 

 Keilah, which falls into the Nile in 9 north lat., above the 

 mouth of the Godjeb or Sobat." 



Russegger's scientific expedition undertaken in 1837 and 

 1838, in consequence of Mehemed Ali's eager desire to parti- 

 cipate in the gold washings of Fazokl on the Blue (Green) 

 Nile, Bahr el-Azrek has rendered the existence of a Mountain 

 of the Moon very doubtful. The Blue Nile, the Astapus of 

 Ptolemy, rising from Lake Coloe (now called Lake Tzana), 

 winds through the colossal Abyssinian range of mountains; 

 while to the south-west there appears a far extended tract of 

 low land. The three exploring expeditions which the 

 Egyptian Government sent from Chartum to the confluence 

 of the Blue and the White Nile (the first under the command 

 of Selim Bimbaschi, in November, 1839; the next, which 

 was attended by the French engineers Arnaud, Sabatier, and 

 Thibaut, in the autumn of 1 840 ; and the third, in the month 

 of August, 1841), first removed some of the obscurity which 

 had hitherto shrouded our knowledge of the high mountains, 

 which between the parallels of 6 4, and probably still further 

 southward, extend first from west to east, and subsequently 

 from north-west to south-east, towards the left bank of the 

 Bahr-el-Abiad. The second of Mehemet Ali's expeditions first 

 saw the mountain chain, according to Werne's account, in 

 11 20' north lat., where Gebel Abul and Gebel Kutak rise to 

 the height of 3623 feet. The high land continued to approach 

 the river more to the south from 4 4$ north lat. to the 

 parallel of the Island of Tchenker in 4 4', near the point at 

 which terminated the expedition commanded by Selim and 

 Feizulla Effendi. The shallow river breaks its way through 



