TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 803 



In 1882 and 1883 surveys were made which fully justified this opinion. The 

 Wadi Reian, which runs S.S.E. from Qasr Qerun, is a valley corresponding in 

 shape to the Meridis Lacus of the Ptolemaic maps. It seems, therefore, established 

 that the ancient historians correctly stated that there was a vast reservoir of Nile 

 water to the west of the Nile valley. The Arabic tradition states, with great clear- 

 ness and probability, that in the early period of Egyptian history the water filled 

 the northern basins now known as the Fayoum, but that this lake received the 

 waters of the inundation like Albert Nyanza, without any artificial regulation of 

 the flow. The great labour expended upon this lake consisted in the formation of 

 the second, or Reian, basin, the canal from Behnesa to the Southern basin, the canal 

 still known as the Bahr Jusuf, and the great wall of the Fayoum which excluded 

 the water from the upper plateau. This region was called by the Jews, Pithom. 

 It was Pi-Turn, or the West. Recent researches by Dr. Schweinfurth fully sup- 

 port the assertions put forth from time to time as the results of repeated (seven) 

 visits to this part of the Libyan Desert, especially the presence of fresh-water shells 

 at the Nile level, and the remains of a town north of Dimeh. Although these 

 conclusions were opposed to the opinion of the entire scientific world — French, 

 English, and German— they have been accepted. They are of peculiar importance, 

 because— 



(1.) The integrity and trustworthiness of the ancient historians have been re- 

 habilitated. 



(2.) An impidse has been given to seek for other great works, especially the 

 Labyrinth. 



(3.) A restoration of the lake is considered feasible. 



This restored lake would be about 250 miles in circumference, with over 600 

 miles of surface, and irrigate an immense area. It would greatly facilitate the re- 

 demption of the marshes at the mouths of the Nile, and the construction of a Cairo- 

 Suez canal. 



4. On Maps of Central Africa down to the commencement of the Seventeenth 

 Century. By B. G. Ravenstein, F.R.G.S. 



The author, having gone through the records of discovery and exploration of 

 Central Africa from the most remote period, stated that the maps of the middle 

 ages, which exhibited a well-developed system of lakes and rivers, were the out- 

 come of a very clumsy combination of Ptolemy's map, with the more recent reports 

 of Portuguese explorers. These latter had done important work, and they were 

 fairly well acquainted with the lower Congo, the lower Zambezi, and a considerable 

 tract of territory inland, but no evidence of their ever having crossed Africa had 

 hitherto been brought forward. The expeditions of Fernando Gomez (1508), 

 Gregorio Quadra (1521), and Rebello d'Aragao, of Santarem (1603), which aimed 

 at that object, were cut short at the very outset. At the same time it appeared to 

 be clear that native traders crossed the continent at this early date, for Portuguese 

 manufactures reached Manica overland from Loanda. A casual reference to a 

 journey of a missionary across Africa, in a popular work on oriental drugs, was 

 not supported by other evidence. Had Ludolfus, the learned author of « Ethiopia,' 

 carried out his intention of compiling a map of the whole of Africa, he would with- 

 out a doubt have produced a work far superior to the maps of the period, and 

 secured himself a place by the side of such eminent cartographers as de LTsle and 

 d Anville. 



FRIDAY, AUGUST 29. 

 The following Papers were read : — 



1. The remarkable Journey of the trained Indian Explorer A. K. on the 

 Frontiers of India and China. By Tkelawnet Saundeks. 

 The work of this native scientific explorer, trained by the officers of the great 

 trigonometrical survey of India, has thrown a light over regions on the Eastern 



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