348 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 



these lakes of Ghana and Wangara, it does not there ter- 

 minate, but that, in the season of the rains, it also flows out 

 of them. In fact, Edrisi does not make the Niger to ter- 

 minate in the swamps of Wangara or Vancara ; he merely 

 describes them as being an island three hundred miles in 

 length, and one hundred and fifty in breadth, surrounded 

 by the Niger all the year, but that, in the month of August, 

 the greater part is covered with water as long as the inun- 

 dations of the Niger continue ; and that when the river has. 

 subsided into its proper channel, the negroes return to their 

 habitations, and dig the earth for gold, " everyone finding 

 more or less, as it pleases God." But not a Avord is men- 

 tioned of their finding salt, which indeed is the great inter- 

 changeable commodity for gold. 



On the assumption, then, of Wangara discharging its 

 overflowing waters, the most probable direction of the 

 channel is to the southward ; and as the evidence of the 

 northern origin of the Zaire amounts almost to the establish- 

 ment of the fact, the approximation of the two streams is 

 in favour of their identity. If the account of Sidi Hamet's 

 visit to Wassenah, as related by Riley, could be depended 

 on, a very fev/ degrees only are wanting to bring the two 

 streams together ; but with all the strong testimonies in 

 favour of Riley's veracity, every page of his book betrays 

 a looseness and inaccuracy, that very much diminish the 

 value of this Arab^s narrative as it is given by him. The 

 name of 2;^a</?', given by this Arab merchant to die Niger at 

 Wassenah ; that of Zad, which Horneman learned to be its 

 name to the eastward of Tombuctoo^ " where it turned off to 

 the southward ;" the Enzaddi, which Maxwell says is the 

 name given to the cataracts of the Zaire ; and the Moienzi 



