382 Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



the members of the Royal Family, who number about two thousand. 

 The Dahoman king is sworn never to lead his army where canoes 

 may be required ; therefore a neighbouring tribe, to protect them- 

 selves from his incursions, have built their huts upon tall poles, 

 about a mile distant from the shore. These villages at once suggest 

 the origin of the ancient lake dwellings of Switzerland. The 

 Dahoman language is poor and meagre. It is harsh and explosive, 

 the gutturals being most pronounced. About 300 words only 

 are used in conversation, but the same word signifies very different 

 things, according to the manner in which it is pronounced, which 

 renders the language very perplexing. Captain Burton, in con- 

 cluding his paper, observed that the dawn of the bright day when 

 Africa will take her place in the republic of nations, appears wholly 

 dependent on the light of the Crescent. 



EOTAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.— Nov. 14 



On the Sources op the Nile. — Captain R. E. Burton read a 

 Paper on " Lake Tanganyika, Ptolemy's Western Lake-reservoir of 

 the Nile." He commenced by acknowledging his recognition of 

 the many noble qualities of Capt. Speke ; his courage, energy, and 

 perseverance. But he could not accept his " settlement " of the 

 Nile. There were five objections to deriving the true Nile from the 

 supposed Victoria Nyanza. 1, the difference of the levels in the 

 upper and lower part of the lake ; 2, the Mwerango River rising 

 from the hills in the middle of the lake ; 3, the road through the 

 lake ; 4, the inundation of the southern part of the lake for thir- 

 teen miles, when the low northern shore is never flooded ; 5, the 

 swelling of the lake during the dry periods of the Nile, and vice 

 versa. It might, however, be observed that, whilst refusing to 

 accept the present settlement of the great problem, he in no wise 

 proposed to settle the question : this must be left to time. Dr. 

 Livingstone and Dr. Kirk, in their recent exploration of Lake 

 Nyassa, threw remarkable light on the question, inasmuch as they 

 had stated their convictions to be that no great river entered this 

 lake from the north ; the drainage of Lake Tanganyika, therefore, 

 could not lie towards Lake Nyassa. Moreover, Dr. Kirk had 

 informed the author that there was no community of species 

 between the shells collected by Capt. Burton in Tanganyika and 

 those collected by Dr. Kirk in Nyassa; and the "salt-weed" 

 (Totamoqeton pectinatus) found in Nyassa was unknown in Tangan- 

 yika. With regard to the effluence of the waters of Tanganyika 

 in the opposite direction, namely, towards the Nile, Capt. Burton 

 confessed that what he learned when on the lake in 1858 militated 

 against the supposition of a northern outflow. The information 

 received about the river connected with the southern end (River 

 Marungu) was, however, quite positive to the effect that it entered 

 the lake. Seeing now the difficulty of imagining a reservoir 25< I 

 miles long, situated at a considerable altitude in the zone of con- 

 stant rains, without efflux, he was inclined to reconsider the ques- 

 tion of an outflow to the north. The crescent-shaped " Mountains 



