130 STEPPES AND DESERTS. 



Journal of the Royal Greogr. Soc. vol. xviii. 1848, pp. 53, 55, and 

 59-63, with Fred. Werne's instructive expedition for the discovery 

 of the sources of the Nile, Exped. zur Entd. der Nil-Quellen, 1848, 

 s. 534-536.) 



The lively interest which has again been excited in England for 

 the discovery of the most southern sources of the Nile, induced the 

 above-named Abyssinian traveller, Charles Beke, at the recent 

 meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 held at Swansea, August, 1848; to develop more in detail his ideas 

 respecting the connection between the Mountains of the Moon and 

 the Mountains of Habesch. He says : " The Abyssinian elevated 

 plain, generally above 8000 feet high, extends towards the south to 

 nearly 9 or 10 N. latitude. The eastern declivity of the high- 

 lands has to the inhabitants of the coast the appearance of a mount- 

 ain chain. The plateau at its southern extremity passes into the 

 Mountains of the Moon, which run, not east and west, but parallel 

 to the coast, or from NNE. to SSW.; extending from 10 N. to 5 

 S. latitude. The sources of the White Nile are situated in the 

 Mono-Moezi country, probably in 2 S., not far from where the 

 river Sabaki, on the eastern side of the Mountains of the Moon, falls 

 into the Indian Ocean near Melindeh, north of Mombaza. Last 

 autumn (1847) the two Abyssinian missionaries Rebmann and Krapf 

 were still on the coast of Mombaza. They have established in the 

 vicinity, among the Wakamba tribe, a missionary station called 

 Rabbay Empie, which promises to be very useful also for geographi- 

 cal discovery. Families belonging to the Wakamba tribe have 

 advanced to the west 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 S. lat. ?), and the sources of the 

 Nile, which are not far distant. An expedition to these sources, 

 which Herr Friedrich Bialloblotzky, of Hanover, is preparing to 

 undertake (by the advice of Beke), is to set out from Mombaza. 

 The Nile coming from the west referred to by the ancients is pro- 

 bably the Bahr-el-Ghazal, or Keilah, which falls into the Nile in 9 

 N. lat., above the mouth of the Godjeb or Sobat." 



Russegger's scientific expedition which by Mehemet Ali's desire 

 was sent to the gold-washings of Fazokl on the Blue (Green) Nile, 



