xvi 
APPEN DIX. 
Manding ; a state of things, perhaps little expected, in a country regarded 
here, as the most thirsty on the globe. * 
We may conclude that similar circumstances take place, with respect to 
the Joliba ; only that as its course is such as to intercept all the streams that 
descend from the Kong mountains on the south, whilst Mr. Park's travels 
along it, were confined to the northern bank, he had no opportunity of know- 
ing it, any farther than by seeing various openings on that side ; and by 
being told that he could not possibly make his way there. No doubt, it re- 
ceives some large streams also, when its course diverges far enough from the 
mountains as to allow the waters room to collect. 
At the lowest point to which Mr. Park traced it, and which (although 
about 420 British miles in direct distance from its source) could only be 
reckoned the early part of its course, it was a very considerable body of 
water; the largest,, he says, that he had seen (in Africa,} and it abounded 
with crocodiles. The rainy season was but just begun ; and the river might 
have been forded at Sego, where its bed expands to a vast breadth. Still, 
however, we must not estimate the bulk of the Niger, that Niger which was 
in the contemplation of Phny and the Romans, by the measure of its bulk at 
Sego, and Silla.t If we suppose it to be the same river which passes by 
Kassina (and we know of no other), which place is 700 miles, or more, to 
the eastward of Silla, it would doubtless, receive by the way great additional 
supplies of water, and be at least a much deeper river than where Mr. Park 
saw it. And here it may not be amiss to remark, for the use of those who 
* There is in Africa, a rainy season and also a periodical change of wind, as in the 
same latitudes in India : in effect, a Monsoon. 
f It may be conceived that the Romans, who, according to Pliny, (lib. v. 4,), held the 
dominion of the countries as far as the Niger, penetrated to it by the route of Gadamis, 
Fezzan, Taboo, and Kassina, as the most direct, and convenient one, from the Mediter- 
ranean. There are very clear proofs of the conquest of the three former by Balbus. 
(Pliny, lib. v. 5.) It was known to Pliny that the Niger swelled periodically like the 
Nile, and at the same season; which we have also in proof from Major Houghton's 
Report ; and from Mr. Park's Observations. Pliny says, moreover, that its productions 
were the same v/ith those of the Nile. (Lib. v. c. 8.) 
