IN CENTRAL AFRICA. 
33 5 
§ IV. 
OF SOME RESULTS OF THE TRAVELS OF M. CAILLIE. 
Of all the results, for which we are indebted to the new 
travels, that which most excites curiosity is unquestionably 
the knowledge of the city of Timbuctoo ; but, perhaps that 
which is most important to geography is the course of the 
great central river. Although M. Caillie was unable to 
give information of it beyond Timbuctoo, he has conferred 
a real service on science, since he describes its banks with 
circumstantial detail from Djenne to that city, and gives 
us an idea of its course above Djenne. By crossing it at 
Couroussa, and after advancing more than two hundred 
English miles farther east, then travelling as far as Djenne 
on the right bank, he has furnished reason for concluding 
that no river parallel with the Dhioliba exists there, 
as traced upon the maps. The river, on the contrary, re- 
ceives in this quarter pretty numerous tributaries, which, 
from their importance, seem to denote a distant source.* 
We perceive from the description that both banks of the 
river, a little beyond Bamakou, are very open, and their 
declivity gentle, which explains the existence of vast 
accumulations of water, of which the Lake Debo or 
Dhiebou is the most considerable. Whatever opinion may 
* On the left bank the Tankisso, and several others ; on the right 
bank the Couaraba, the Bagoe, kc. 
