244 
tains of Kong, not far from each other, and take their 
respective directions, the one towards north-east, and 
the other towards north-west. The former, after a course 
of about four hundred miles, arrives at Ginbala, on the 
frontiers of Sahhara; and the second, after having taken 
a turn of about the same distance, waters the bounds of 
the same desert, in the vicinity of Faribe. Here the 
situation of both rivers becomes quite the same. The 
Senegal, in order to get from Faribe to the sea, which 
is only about one hundred and twenty miles distant, 
makes a thousand circuits, and forms of its water num- 
bers of lakes and marshes in a flat country, which is al- 
most at a level with the ocean; so that one may positively 
assert, that if the sea was to withdraw about two hun- 
dred and fifty miles from its present coasts, and keep 
the same level, the Senegal would not be able to attain 
it, but must lose itself in one or more lakes- 
For much greater reason will the water of the Niger, 
which at Gimbala, is in the same position as the Senegal 
is at Faribe, not find a sufficient declivity to attain the 
ocean, as it would have three hundred and sixty miles" 
to pass, which is treble the distance of the Senegal's 
course. And here at Faribe begins the great lake, or 
the interior sea of Africa, which, extending in its pre- 
sumed dimensions, goes to the lake of Fiter, into which 
fall the rivers Gazel, Misselad, and others. It com- 
municates also with the lake of Semegonda, which I con- 
sider as a bay or gulf of our Caspian sea in Africa. 
But if, from the place where I suppose this interior 
sa to begin, the Niger had still six hundred miles to run, 
and the Gazel, the Misselad, and others, about eight 
hundred, in order to arrive in a straight line at the Gulf 
