37-3 REMARKS ON 
and Djacoba. The reports made to Major Denham de- 
monstrate the importance of this stream, which is suffi- 
ciently proved by its extent ; but, why, without ocular 
testimony, did he imagine its course to be easterly ? If 
the negroes did not inform him that it ran to the 
west, neither did they state the contrary. Let us 
admit the westerly direction : a certain communication 
will then exist also between the Couara and the Chary ; 
only, after having descended a current southwards, we 
must ascend another eastward, and thence redescend 
northwards, into the central lake. This is the most 
plausible theory I can devise upon Major Denham's opi- 
nion ; this is nearly the case with the White Nile and the 
Misselad, both taking their rise in one of the lakes of 
Gebel-Koumri. Upon this system, the Couara will con- 
tinue, after the confluence, to flow southwards, and fall 
into the sea near the coast of Benin. 
A fifth opinion has been recently broached by the 
English General Sir Uufane Donkin the summary of 
which is that the Niger crosses the Wangarah, enters the 
valley of Ouadi-el-G hazel, formed by the continuation of 
the Misselad, and thence runs into the Mediterranean (in 
the great Syrtis) by a subterranean channel under the sands 
of Bilmah ; and moreover that the Niger rises near the 
Gulph of Guinea, instead of running towards it. This 
* A Dissertation on the Course and probable Termination of the 
Niger. London, 1829. 
