IN CENTRAL AFRICA. 
317 
COMPUTATION OF THE DAYS* JOURNEYS; 
The geography of countries which have not been 
explored by observers furnished with instruments is usual- 
ly reduced to the calculations of days' journeys. What 
can be more vague or doubtful than such documents ? 
The most learned discussion (as remarked above), can 
only elicit feeble scintillations from them. How are con- 
tradictory accounts to be reconciled ? How are common 
days' journeys to be distinguished from double days, or 
even longer still ? It is evident, that itineraries must be 
examined and compiled from the number of the hours jour- 
neys, and not by the days, and there would then be a less 
degree of uncertainty. Should European travellers them- 
selves compute their lines of march by the days' journeys? 
And how happens it that it is not an established rule, in 
exploring distant and unknown countries, to keep an exact 
account of the hours and every fraction of time ? The 
journal of M. Caillie, although he has not rigorously 
complied with this condition, at least presents an unin- 
terrupted continuity of marches measured by time, gene- 
rally by hours, sometimes by half-hours and even quarters. 
But for this persevering (and amidst so many fatigues 
truly laudable) attention, positive geography would have 
gained very little by these long and toilsome peregri- 
nations. 
