414 
THEORIES RESPECTING THE NIGER. 
tions are fulfilled, by supposing it to be the hither- 
to unknown termination of the Niger. Thus too, 
it is said, will the mystery be withdrawn, which 
now veils the mysterious course of that great cen- 
tral river. No receptacle hitherto discovered, or 
reported, nothing except a great inland sea, like 
the Aral or the Caspian, could, it is conceived, 
contain the waters of the vast stream which flows 
through Bambarra, swelled, as it must be, by con- 
tinual accessions during an additional course of 
more than 1000 miles. 
Considering the plausibility of these arguments, 
and the enthusiastic zeal with which the system 
had been adopted by our great African traveller, 
it cannot be wondered, that a general impression 
arose in its favour. This was greatly aided by the 
able manner in which it was supported by the two 
leading critical journals, which, though sometimes 
differing in other points, agreed entirely in this. 
That in the Quarterly Review, besides the ability 
with which it was written, shewed such an intimate 
acquaintance with the subject, that it could not 
fail to produce a most powerful impression on the 
public mind. The writer of this will admit the 
probability, had he not been prepossessed by other 
views, he might have been carried along by the 
current. Happening, however, to study this sub- 
ject with particular attention, a hypothesis occur- 
red somewhat differing from any now stated ; and 
