246 
Vegetation and other decompositions of this fluid, roff 
and unite. It remains now only to advance a few facts 
in favour of our opinion, that such an interior sea ac- 
tually exists. 
In order to examine this point, we refer to some an- 
cient authors, who make mention of several large lakes 
2 n the interior part of Africa, such as the Nigrites palus, 
the lakes Cionia, Libia, Kilt, Nuba, Gira, Chelonides* 
May they not all be gulfs or bays of one and the same 
great lake, though endowed with these different names? 
W e do the like; and a person unacquainted with geo- 
graphy, who hears the different names of the Adriatic sea r 
of the Archipelago, of the Sea of Marmora, and of the 
Black Sea, will certainly not suppose that they are parts 
of one and the same sea called the Mediterranean. 
In the discussions to which this question has give 
rise, some errors have been adopted for want of under 
standing each other; and I find the cause of it to lie in 
the different significations of the word Bahar. The na- 
tions who speak Arabic call the sea Bahar, a common 
lake Bahar, and a river also Bahar. 
When the inhabitants, or Arabian travellers coming 
from the interior of Africa, speak of a Bahar existing in 
that country, the ancient and modern Europeans have 
only imagined that they heard of a common lake, with- 
out asking for the explanation of a word which they 
thought had only meant lakes or rivers. 
These reasons led me to believe the existence of this 
sea, even before I went to Africa. I discussed this 
opinion at Paris, in the year 1802, with some of the learn- 
ed members of the Institut, and in London with some 
&f the Royal Society. I composed a memorial then 
