290 



GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERY. 



river, which is 420 to 490 feet wide here, and 

 has a very swift current. Its elevation is 

 8,000 feet ahove the sea-level. Above here 

 the river runs through many deep ravines, most 

 difficult to pass. The natives, called the Sit'au, 

 which is Chinese for Western barbarians, were 

 unfriendly. The travelers traversed some large 

 forests with a rich fauna. The blue pheasant 

 was encountered at the altitude of 9,500 feet. 

 The medicinal rhubarb is indigenous here, and 

 the roots sometimes weigh twenty-six pounds. 

 The Churmysh is a tributary which flows into 

 the Yellow River, eighty-seven miles above 

 Gomi. An enormous mountain-chain barred 

 the passage above, the Burkhan-Buda, which 

 is entirely destitute of vegetation. The chasms 

 through which the river finds its passage be- 

 came more and more arduous. Finding no 

 passage over the mountains, and not even being 

 able to cross the Churmysh, which is 300 to 

 350 feet wide, they returned to Gomi. He ob- 

 tained leave to cross to the right bank of the 

 Yellow River and explored in Houide. After 

 examining the rich flora of the mountains, he 

 proceeded northward to Cheibsen, and after- 

 ward explored the country about Koko Nor. 

 He came out at Ugri, passing over the Ala Shan 

 and the middle Gobi, reaching there in Oc- 

 tober, 1880, having traveled altogether 4,800 

 miles. 



AFRICA. There is a renewed interest mani- 

 fested at present in the regions drained by the 

 Niger, and in the exploration of the upper 

 Niger, otherwise called the Joliba, and its 

 sources, and more particularly of the Benue 

 branch of the Niger. The French people and 

 their Government, and to some extent the Ger- 

 mans, as well as the ubiquitous English traders, 

 are devoting much attention to the commer- 

 cial exploitation of this productive region and 

 of the still more important basin drained by 

 Lake Tchad, of which the Niger- Benue is the 

 key; and a growing trade, already large, is 

 carried on at the mouth of the Niger. In 

 1822 Major Laing saw the place where the up- 

 per Niger, or Joliba, rises from the summit of 

 a sugar-loaf peak twenty-five miles distant. 

 The spot in the side of a lofty mountain, which 

 was pointed out to him as the head of the 

 river, appeared to have an altitude of about 

 1,600 feet above the sea. The Scotch explorer 

 was not able to visit the fountain-head of the 

 Niger on account of the superstitious fears of 

 the inhabitants lest he should throw a spell 

 over the spring and pollute the pure crystal 

 waters of the river with sorceries. The river 

 at its head bears the name of the Tembi. This 

 stream, which by its length and its volume de- 

 serves to be considered the principal source of 

 the Niger, has been lately visited by MM. Zwei- 

 fel and Moustier, two commercial agents of a 

 house in Marseilles. Rising near the highest 

 peak of the Loma range, in about 11 north 

 latitude, not far from the source of the Sen- 

 egal, but on the opposite slope, the Niger 

 flows first northward, crossing the kingdom of 



Segou and passing near the city of Timbuctoo, 

 turns to the eastward, and then takes a south- 

 easterly course to the confluence with the Be- 

 nue. This beautiful river is navigable through- 

 out its course, except at the rapids of Boussa, 

 which could be easily passed by a lateral canal. 

 These rapids are situated a short distance above 

 the confluence. 



Zweifel and Moustier started from Port Loko, 

 on the northern branch of the Rokelle, or Sier- 

 ra Leone River, on July 11, 1879. They in- 

 tended to proceed direct to Mount Loma, but 

 found it necessary to go by way of Falaba. A 

 party of Koranko warriors from Mount Loma 

 arrived while they were there for the purpose 

 of striking a peace with the King of Falaba, and 

 the travelers were allowed to accompany these 

 emissaries upon their return. They crossed 

 several affluents of the Niger, and at last came 

 to the Tembi, the principal head-stream, but 

 were prevented from following it down to the 

 Joliba by a war which was going on below. 

 The Tembi rises in the neighborhood of the 

 village Kulakoya, 011 the borders of Koranko, 

 Kissi, and Kono. This is the main branch of 

 the Joliba, and is reverently regarded by the 

 natives as the source of the great river. They 

 could only follow it up to the point where it 

 issues from the granite wall of the mountain, 

 being forbidden to enter by a man who seems 

 to officiate as the guardian high priest of the 

 fountain, and who lives on a small island 

 formed by the stream a few miles farther down. 

 The travelers left Port Loko July 11, 1879, 

 and reached Falaba on the 16th of August. 

 The forests which Reade encountered on this 

 route ten years ago have given place to rice 

 and grain fields. On the route from Falaba 

 they first crossed three branches of the Joliba, 

 the Tentaraba, the Tamicone, and the Falico, 

 before reaching the Tembi. They passed the 

 surce of the Seli River, which is the upper 

 course of the Rokelle. The natives opposed 

 their progress when near the goal of their jour- 

 ney in every possible manner. The Kurankos 

 above were intelligent and hospitable, but those 

 of Kissi and Kono are a wild, degraded race, 

 who have no intercourse with the neighboring 

 peoples, except to trade for the powder they 

 want. The Tembi is a mere brooklet at Kula- 

 koya. The source is in 8 45' north latitude 

 and 10 25' west longitude. 



J. H. Ash croft, in a small steamer built for 

 the purpose of extending the work of the 

 Church Missionary Society, which has a sta- 

 tion at Lokoja, opposite the confluence of the 

 Benue and the Niger, has ascended the Benue 

 one hundred and forty-five miles beyond the 

 point attained by Blaikie in 1854. The steam- 

 er Henry Venn is one hundred and twenty feet 

 long, has fifteen feet of beam, and a capa- 

 city of sixty tons, with a draught of three and 

 a half feet. Eduard Robert Flegel, a German 

 trader who has long resided on the coast, ac- 

 companied the expedition and sketched a map 

 of the route, and took barometrical obssrva- 



