THEORIES RESPECTING THE NIGER. 419 
buctoo flowing to the westward. Leo, though per- 
plexed by opposite reports, says positively, in treat- 
ing of the navigation from Tombuctoo to Jinne, 
" Noi navigammo scorrendo per l'acqua." Ben Ali, 
after residing six months at Tombuctoo, stated to 
the Association 1790, that the river of Tombuctoo 
flowed west, Denon received the same informa- 
tion from an African prince ; and Schiek Ibrahim, 
it is said, from the Arab traders in Nubia. Hence 
it has been conjectured, that the Mar Zarah is a 
tributary stream, joining its waters to those of the 
Niger or Joliba, which certainly flows eastward. * 
The difficulty which lies in supposing two such 
great streams running parallel and near, yet in op- 
posite directions to each other, is, in a great 
measure, obviated by what is next to be noticed. 
In our sketch of Riley's narrative, we have al- 
ready noticed the report received by him from the 
Arab merchant, Sidi Hamet, and which, for reasons 
already stated, we are not much disposed to dis- 
credit. According to him, the Zolibib (Joliba) flows 
for six days' journey east, with some declination 
* It is but justice to D' Anville to notice, that, in his map 
of central Africa, inserted in the twenty-sixth volume of the 
Academie des Inscriptions, he has represented a river passing 
close to Tombuctoo, running south-west, and falling into the 
Niger. This delineation has not been copied by others ; but 
it is not the less probable, that that excellent geographer 
may have had positive information on which to found it. 
