OF THE RIVER WHABBEE. 121 



received, compared with the accounts sent to the 

 Geographical Society of Paris, by M. d'Abbadie, 

 from Berberah, on the Soumaulee coast, respecting 

 the entrance of the Whabbee into the sea at Jubah. 

 Nor is this idea at all affected by the discoveries of 

 Lieut. Christopher on the coast near Brava, respect- 

 ing a river said to be the Whabbee, which runs 

 parallel to the sea-coast in that situation for more 

 than one hundred miles, and then terminates in a 

 fresh- water lake, some short distance inland; for 

 this may be the northern arm of a delta-formed 

 termination of the river, which has been prevented 

 from reaching the sea in that situation, by the 

 strong marine current known to exist along that 

 coast, to the south-west. This has occasioned the 

 silting up of this entrance of the river, so that it is 

 only in very high seasons indeed of flood, that the 

 fluvatile water bursts through, or overflows the 

 barrier, and escapes to the sea. The mouths of 

 several other African rivers present similar pheno- - 

 mena. The discovery of the Haines branch of the 

 delta of the Whabbee proves, in fact, the correct- 

 ness of all native accounts, who represent a large 

 branch as leaving the main trunk of the Whabbee 

 at Ganana, and terminating in a lake of fresh 

 water, not far distant from Brava, and which inter- 

 cepted river is supposed to resemble " a tail" and 

 hence the name, " Ganana." All informants agree, 

 however, that the principal stream, still called the 

 Whabbee, proceeds to Jubah, so that unless the 



