Chap. XXXV. FLOODS AND FALL OF THE RIVER. 475 
sent out by her Majesty's Government in the "Pleiad," 
and who succeeded in reaching the point down to 
which I had been able to delineate the course of the 
river with some degree of certainty. That the fall 
of the river at this point of the junction begins at the 
very end of September has been exactly confirmed by 
these gentlemen, while with regard to the forty days 
they have not made any distinct observation, although 
there is evidence enough that they experienced some- 
thing confirmatory of it. # 
* There was a very serious discrepancy amongst those gentle- 
men with regard to the fall of the river. Dr. Baikie states, in his 
journal which recently appeared, p. 230., that "the water first 
showed decided signs of falling about the 3rd of October, and by 
the 5th the decrease was very perceptible." If, therefore, the river 
began to fall at Zhibu on the 3rd of October, the fall would com- 
mence at the Tepe, more than 200 miles higher up along the 
windings of the river, at least three days before, if we take the 
current at three miles an hour. My statement, therefore, that 
the river begins decidedly to fall at the confluence at the very 
end of September, has been singularly confirmed. But that there 
is also some truth with regard to the long continuance of the 
highest level, is evident from the conflicting observations of the 
party. (See Baikie's Journal, p. 217.) Indeed the sailing-master 
insisted that the river had fallen long before ; and all the people 
were puzzled about it. From all this I must conclude that my 
statement with regard to the river, instead of having been con- 
siderably modified by the expedition, has been confirmed by their 
experience in all its principal points. We shall see the same diffi- 
culty recur with regard to a maximum level preserved for forty 
days by the western river, although the time when it begins to 
fall is entirely different; and as to the latter river, not only I, 
but the natives also were mistaken with respect to its presumed 
time of falling. The same is the case with the (river) Shari, 
