NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 307 
before us must be deemed to be well worth the labour expended 
in procuring them by those to whose zeal and energy the present 
work will form a lasting monument. 
Through the Dark Continent ; or, the Sources of the Nile, around 
the Great Lakes of Equatorial Africa, and down the Living- 
stone River to the Atlantic Ocean. By Henry M. STAn.ey. 
2 vols.; with Maps and Illustrations. London: Sampson 
Low, Marston & Co. 1878. 
THE two handsome volumes, recently published under the above 
title, may be briefly described, as embodying the result of Mr. 
Stanley’s attempt to solve three important problems of African 
geography, namely, the true source of the Nile, the extent of the 
Victoria Nyanza and Tanganika Lakes, and the course of the 
Great River, supposed to be the Congo, which Livingstone and 
Cameron had seen at Nyangwé. 
The undertaking was a gigantic one, requiring not only nerve, 
judgment, and great physical powers of endurance on the part of 
the explorer, but an aptitude for governing a body of men knowing 
nothing of discipline, and possessing in many cases the most 
impetuous and excitable tempers; skill in planning the best 
course out of a difficulty, and promptitude and resolution in 
carrying out the measures devised. 
It is impossible to read Mr. Stanley’s narrative without coming 
to the conclusion that he possessed all these qualities in an 
eminent degree; had it been otherwise he could never have 
accomplished what he did. More than this, in the preparation for 
his journey he displayed much prudence and forethought; and 
after reading the works of previous explorers in Africa, a retentive 
memory enabled him to profit largely by past experience of his 
own and others in the inhospitable wilds which he was to tread. 
His design for a boat—or barge, as he calls it—in five water- 
tight sections, to enable its easier carriage overland on men’s 
shoulders, proved invaluable. It seems certain after his experience 
of the native canoes which were quite unable to live in rough 
weather, and went down one after another with stores and guns 
(pp. 260, 261), that without the ‘ Lady Alice’ he could never have 
circumnavigated the Victoria Nyanza and Tanganika Lakes. 
To any but the most intrepid traveller the extent of these vast 
