the Eastern Side of the Basin of the Nile. 241 
the Red Sea and the highest in Endrea, where the line of 
separation between the waters flowing to the Nile and those 
of the rivers having their course to the Indian Ocean, was 
supposed by him to exist; and I expressed the opinion, in 
accordance with that of Dr Riippell, that so far from the high 
country rising in terraces as it recedes from the coast, its sum- 
mit line is towards the coast itself, and from thence the land 
falls gradually towards the interior. 
In the latter paper, when treating of the rivers which have 
their course over the table-land, I remarked that “ the fall of 
the tributaries of the Nile diminishes gradually as they flow 
north-westwards to join the main stream ; which latter, skirt- 
ing as it does the western flank of the high land, is the sink 
into which the Takkazie, the Bahr-el-Azrek, the Godjeb, Telfi 
or Sobat, the Shoabérri,* and whatever other rivers there may 
be are received, its current being sluggish, and (as would 
appear) almost stagnant in the upper part of its course, except 
during the floods. In the dry season, its bed would indeed 
almost seem to consist of a succession of lakes and swamps, 
rather than to be the channel of a running stream. At 
Khartum, at the confluence of the Bahr-el-Azrek, the height 
of the bed of the Nile above the ocean is only 1525 feet ;f 
and it is far from improbable that even as high up as the fifth 
parallel of north latitude its absolute elevation does not much 
exceed 2000 feet.’ 
In the same paper I first enunciated my hypothesis as to 
the derivation of the name of the Mountains of the Moon, 
in which the geographer Ptolemy places the sources of the 
Nile. This hypothesis may be thus briefly stated. The direct 
stream of the Nile was approximatively traced by me into that 
part of Eastern Africa where the country of Monomoezi 
(as I was then content to call it) had been placed by geo- 
graphers and is now found to be situate; and as in the 
languages extending over the greater portion of Southern 
* It is now found that there is no separate river of this name. The Shol of 
Berri is the upper course, or a principal tributary, of the Sobat. .See ‘The 
Sources of the Nile,” pp. 14 and 125; and see *‘ Atheneum” of 31st August 
1861, No. 1766, p. 283. | 
t Now estimated at only 1188 feet. See ‘‘ The Sources of the Nile,” p. 35, 
{ Journal Royal Geographical Society, vol. xvii. p. 80. 
