58 



small rocky dikes are so near each other, that 

 they form for several miles an uninterrupted 

 succession of cascades and whirlpools, charros 

 and remolinos ; these are properly what are 

 called rapids, raudales. Such are the yellalas, 

 or rapids of the Rio Zaire # , or Congo, which 

 Captain Tuckey has recently made known to 

 us ; the rapids of the Orange river in Africa, 

 above Pella ; and the falls of the Missouri, 

 which are four leagues in length, where the 

 river issues from the Stony Mountains. Such 

 also are the cataracts of Atures and Maypures ; 

 the only cataracts, which, situate in the equin- 

 octial region of the New World, are decorated 

 with the noble growth of palm trees. At all 

 seasons they exhibit the aspect of real cascades, 

 and present the greatest obstacles to the naviga- 

 tion of the Oroonoko, while the rapids of the 

 Ohio-f- and of Upper Egypt are scarcely visible 



• Voyage to explore the River Zaire, 1818, p. 152,327,340. 

 What the inhabitants of Upper Egypt and Nubia call chellal 

 in the Nile, is called yellala in the Rio Congo. This analogy 

 between words signifying rapids is remarkable, on account of 

 the enormous distance of the yelialas of the Congo from the 

 chellal and djenadel of the Nile. Did the word chellal 

 penetrate with the Moors into the west of Africa? If, with 

 Mr. Burckhardt, we consider the origin of this word as Ara- 

 bic {Travels in Nubia, 1819, p. 84), it must be derived from 

 the root challa (to disperse), which forms chclil, water falling 

 through a narrow channel. 



f Le Tort's rapids, and the falls of Louisville. 



