﻿NIGKB. 



KIOBa 



W4 



•boat 1200 inhabiUnte, a few miles N.N.W. from Neren. SL-Saulgt, 

 ■ituat«d N.K. of Nuven, in a valley between two wooded billa, ha* a 

 population uf 2147. 



2. Ill the second arrondinement tbe ebief town, CMleau-Ckmon, i* 

 ■itaated near the eource ot' the Yonne, 37 milra S. from Neven, on a bigh 

 bill aurrounded by still loftier beifjhta which are covered with forests. 

 It has a tribunal of first iustanoe and 2925 iubabitants, who manufacture 

 ooane woollens and leather, and trade in fuel-wood, charcoal, hides, 

 wool, wheat, wine, and cattle. L>uy, on the Haleine, a feeder of tbe 

 Aron, is situated in the south-east of the department, and has a popu- 

 lation of 2273, and soma trade in wood, charcoul, pigi, and cattle, 

 MmUint-BngUbevt, at tbe foot of tbe Morvan HilU, a few miles S.W, 

 from Chtteau-Chioon, has an ecclesiastical school and 2S67 inhabit- 

 •nta, who maDufacture coarse woollrns, serj^e, linen, and leather. 



8, Id the tbini arroniiisnement the chief town, Clamecg, stands at 

 tbe junction of the Beuvron with tbe Yonne, an<) bus 6002 inhabit- 

 ants in the commune, who manufacture woollen-cloth, pottery, and 

 leath r, and traile largely in wood and charcoal. The town was 

 formerly fortified and defended by an old castle. From 1163 to 1793 

 it was the reiidence of a bishop, who took bis title from Bethlehem in 

 Palestine, tbe oiigiaal see having been suppressed by the Saracens. 

 CUmeoy baa tribunals of first instance and of commerce, and a college. 

 Obr&^jr, a town of 2124 inhabitants, situated in a well-wooded billy 

 oountry, 15 miles S. by R from Clamecy, and near tbe couBuence of 

 the Anguison with the Yonne, has cloth factories, tan-yards and a con- 

 siderable trade in wood. Xonito, N. E. of Corhigny, formerly a fortified 

 town defended by a strong oastle still remaining, has a population of 

 3214. Varty, 10 miles S.W. from Clamecy, in situated in a pretty 

 valley at tbe foot of a high hill covered with vines, and has u popu- 

 lation of 3132, who mitiiufacture linen, leather, and pottery. In tbe 

 neighbourhood there are several iion forges and furnaces. The town 

 has a college, an hospital, and a town-house. 



4. Tbe fourth srrondissement takes its name from its chief town, 

 Cmiu. or Cine, the aociuut Condate, which stands on the right bank of 

 tbe Loire, here crotsed by a suspension-bridge, 32 miles >7. by \V. 

 from Nevers, and has a tribunal of first instance, a college, and 6245 

 inbabitanta. The little river Nouhain, which here enters the Loire, 

 drivea the maoiiinery of several iron-works and foige^, iu which 

 •Dehor* for the French navy are manufactured. Tbe town is in 

 ■euaral well built. It trades in com, wine, nail<, cutlery, timber, 

 Eemp, cattle, to. La-Clutriii, 14 miles X. by Vf. from Heven, prettily 

 ■ituated at the foot of vine-clad slopes on the ri^ht bank of tbe Loire, 

 hss a population of 5052, who manufacture cutlery, ironmongery, 

 files, ateel, bar-iron, and metal buttons. There are iruu-foiges, glass- 

 work', and potteries in the neighb>iurboo<l. The town is clean, but 

 on tbe whole an ill-built places The Ijridge over tbe Loire ia tho must 

 remarkable object Pouilly, also situated on tbe banks of the Loire, 

 • few miles beluw Cosne, in a rich wine district, has 3169 inhabitauU. 

 Prtmery, N.E. of Nevera, on the Niftvre, has iron forgei and foundries, 

 tile- an 1 brick-wurks, and 2103 iubabitants. Donty, E. of Cosne, on 

 tbe Kouhain, has a population of 3791, who manufacture bar- and 

 ■heet-irou, and trade in these products and iu wood. 



The department forms the see of the Uishop of Nevers, is included 

 in th<! jurisdiction of the High Court of Bouigej), within the limits of 

 the Uuiversity-Academy of Dgon, and belongs to the 19th Military 

 DivijioD, of which Bouif;es ia head-quarters. It returns two members 

 to the Legislative Assembly of the French empire. 



(Dictionnairt dt la Fretuce ; AnHuain pour I' An 1S53.) 



NIOER, or QUUURA, a luge river flowing through the interior of 

 Cential Africa, and entering the Qnlf of Ouiuea by several mouths 

 between the bights of Benin and Biafra. There seems no reason to 

 doubt that the ancient Niger is identical with the Quorra. Herodotus 

 (it 32) gives an interesting account of five young meu of the Libyan 

 tribe of Naaamonea, which dwelt on tbe ouaat of tbe Greater Syi tie, 

 who proceeded on a journey of discovery into the interior. After 

 trkvening in a southern direction the inhabited region, and next to it 

 the oouutry of the wild bemts, they crossed the great sandy desert 

 in a western direction for many days, until they arrived at a country 

 lohabited by men of low stature, who conducted them through exten- 

 ri*e aaw b e e to a city built on a creat river which contained crocodiles 

 •ad towed towards the rixiiig sun. This information Herodotus 

 dariTsd fh>m the Oreeka of Cyrene, who had it from Etearchus, king 

 *f the Ammonii, who said that the river in question was a branch of 

 th* Egyptian Mile, an opinion in which the historian acquiesced. 

 Strabo sesma to have known little of the interior of Africa and its 

 rirerik 



Pliny ('Hist Nat," t. 1) gives an account of the expedition into 

 Haaritaaiaof the Roman oommander Suetonius Paulinua, who (A.D. 41) 

 led a Roman army across tbe Atlaa, and, after pawing a desert of black 

 ■uid and burnt ri>cks, arrived at a rivtr called Qer, in some manu- 

 •cripta Niger. The Ger, or Niger, of Suetonius Paulinus was probably 

 the Obir wbicii rans tbmugh Sejrlmeaa. But besides tbe Ger, or 

 Kigsr, of 8«Mtanlns, Plinjr ius-veral places (v. 8, 9, and vili. 21) speaks 

 ot •oolber apparently diatioct river, tho Nigns of Ethiopia, which 

 ha compares with the Nile, " swelling at the same seasons, having 

 aimiiar animals living in its watem, and, like the Nile, producing tho 

 aalamos and the papyru<." Iu his extremely ooofuaed account, which 

 be dsrirad from the authority of king Juba II. of Matiritania, ha 



mixes up the Nigris and the Kile together with other riven, as if all 

 the wati-rs of Central Africa formed but one water-course. 



Throughout all these confused notions of the hydrography of 

 interior Africa entertained by tlie ancients, one constant report or 

 tradition i» apparaut, namely, that of tbe existeooo of a laige river 

 south of tbe great desert, and flowing towards the east It it true 

 that Herodotus, Strabo, Pliny, and their respective authorities thought 

 that this river flowed into the Nile, but Mela, seems to have doubted 

 this, for he says that when tbe river reached the middle of the continent, 

 it was not known what became of it 



Ptolemy, who wrote later than the preceding geographers, and 

 seems to have had better information concerning the interior of Africa, 

 after statin; tbe boundaries uf Libya Interior, proceeds to enumerate 

 various positions on tbe coast of the ocean, after which he mentions 

 the chief mountains of Libya and the streams that flow from them to 

 tbe sea. He then adds, " In tbe interior tbe two greatest rivers are 

 tbe Qeir and tbe Nigeir; the Qeir unites Moimt Usai^la (which be 

 places in 20° 20' N. lat, 33° £. lung.,) with tbe Oanunautic pharanx 

 (the name of a mountain which he bos before stated to be iu 

 10° N. lat, 50° K long.). A river diverges from it at 42° E. long., 

 16° N. lat, and makes the Lake Chelonides, of which tbe middle is iu 

 20° N. lat, 49° E long. This river is said to bo lost under ground 

 and to reappear, forming another river, of which tbe western end is 

 at 16° N. lat, 46° E. long. The eatteru part of the river forms the 

 Lake Nuba, tbe site of which is 15° N. lau, 50° E. long." The posi- 

 tions here assigned to the Qoir and the direction of its main stream, 

 from tbe Garamantic Mountain to Mount Usargul.i, being south-east 

 and north-west seem to point out for its representative either the 

 Shary of Bornou and its supposed affluent the Bahr Kulla of Browne, 

 or perhaps tbe Bahr Misseiad of the same traveller, called Om Tey- 

 mam by Burckbardt, who says that its indigenous appellatiou is Gir, 

 a laige stream coming from about 10° N. lat., and flowing uortb-west 

 through Wodai, west of the borders of Dar-Fur. The Misaelad is 

 supposed to flow into Lake Kittre; we do not know whether any com- 

 munication exist) between Lake Fittio and the Tscbad. From the 

 exploration of Dr. Barth it app.ais that Lake Fittre is the bottom of 

 a distinct ba-sin, aud that it is fed by the Batba, which be says receives 

 all the smaller water-courses descending from the more elevated 

 country at the western foot of Jobel Man^. Several streams, besides 

 the Bahr Kulla and the Bahr Misseiad, all coming from tho south, 

 flow iu a north-west direction through the countries lying between 

 Bornou and Dar-Fur, and tho Geir of Ptolemy may have been tho 

 representative of any or all of them. Linaut was inforuiuJ by some 

 Takiousi pilgrims from Dur-Sillo that they travelled two mouths on 

 tbe Bahr-al-Abiad before they arrived at Sennaar ; and that before 

 arriving at the Abiad they followed the course of another river 

 upwards ; aud that tbe Abiad had its rise iu a country called Babr-el- 

 Lesse, from which some of tbe waters flow towards Maruk, tliat is to 

 say, to tbe north-west. 



We now come to Ptolemy's Nigeir, which he makes quite a distinct 

 rivrr from the Geir, aud places it to tbe westward. H» says that it 

 joins the mountain Maiidrus, 19° N. l.-it, 1 1° E. long., with tbe luoun- 

 taiu Thala, 10° N. lat, 83° E. long. Its course is thereby defined as 

 much lon.-er and in a less oblique line to the eiiuator than the Geir. 

 In fuct it would correspond tolerably well with tbe actual direction of 

 the course of the Joliba and that of tbe Rima or River of Sjikkatoo, 

 supposing that river to form a commuuicatiou with Lake Tschad, as 

 Ptolemy says that the Nigeir has a divergent to the Lake Libye, which 

 he placei in 16° 80' N. lat., 35° E. long. ; and tbe words of the text 

 seem to express that the water ran into tbe lal(p, so that the course of 

 the Nigeir, according to Ptolemy, as well us bis predecessors, was 

 easterly, {is the Joliba or Quorra actually runs for a great part of its 

 course. " The Lake Libye," observes a distinguished geographer, " to 

 which there was an easterly divergent, I struugly hunpeot tu have 

 been the Lake Tchad, notwithstanding that the p>>aiti<>n of Libye falls 

 300 geographical miles north-westward of this lake, for tho uame of 

 Libye favours the presumption that it was the principal lake in the 

 interior of Libya ; it was very natural that Ptolemy, like many of the 

 moderiu, should have been misinformed as to tbe communication of 

 the river with that lake, aud that hu sbouM have mistaken two rivera 

 flowing from tbe same ridge in opposite diroctiou4, one to tho Quorra 

 and the other to the Tschad (I alluile to the Sakkatoo and the Vou 

 rivers), for a single comuiunicjitiou from the Quorra to the lake." 

 (Leake in ' Royal Geographical Journal,' vol. il) 



But Ptolemy, after all, may not have been so much misinformed 

 with respect to a communication existing between tbe lake aud his 

 Nigeir, if, as is now strongly suspected, the communication really 

 exists, though in an inverse direction from that which Ptolemy appears 

 to have unilerstood. Captain Allen (' London Qeog. Journal," vol. viii.) 

 surmises that tbe river Tchadda, which at its junction with tiio 

 Quorra, just above the beginning of tbe delta, is lai^er than tho Quorra 

 itself, receives an outlet from tlie lake somewhere about tbe town of 

 Jacobah. The Arabian geographers of tho middle ages, Edrisi, Abul- 

 feda, aud Leo Afrioanus, state that the Nilel-Abid, or ' River of tho 

 Negroes,' flowed from east to west Tho Tcbiuida tbi-u would be 

 the river of the Arabian, and tbe Joliba, or Upper Quorra, that of tho 

 Greek aud Roman geographers. Both wore ignorant of the real ter 

 mination of their respective streams. " It ia nevertheless remarkable," 



