IN CENTRAL AFRICA. 
OBSERVATIONS ON THE COURSE OF THE DHIOLIBA 
AS TRACED FROM COUROUSSA TO SEGO AND DJENNE. 
The course of the river, from Couroussa to Sego, as 
I have traced it, deviates from the hitherto received opi- 
nions and I am bound to justify so material a change, 
when submitting it to the judgment of geographers. In 
laying down the routes of M. CailHe, I was not prepared 
for such a result, or rather I was apprehensive of finding 
former conjectures relative to the much more westerly 
position of the river, and of the towns through which it 
flows destroyed by actual observations, as an illusion is 
dissipated by the clear light of truth. It has however 
proved quite otherwise, and this opinion was far from rash. 
In fact, beyond Couroussa the river runs due N. E,, then 
eastward, and afterwards for a great distance to the 
north, instead of pursuing invariably an eastern direction 
as marked upon the maps. But on what is this latter 
direction supported ? On what foundations does it rest ? 
It has no other cause than the position arbitrarily as- 
signed to Timbuctoo, much too far east, much too far 
from the mouth of the Senegal. On the more modern 
maps attempts have, it is true, been made to remove this 
position farther west ; the necessity of bringing it nearer 
* It is the same with that from Djenne to Timbuctoo. 
