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Ordinary Meeting, January 26th, 1864. 
Dr. R. Angus Smith, F.R.S., Vice-President, in the Chair. 
The Chairman showed a copy of the “ Mundus Subterra- 
neus” of Athanasius Kircher, edition of 1678, Amsterdam, 
written in 1662. In the first volume are five maps, on which 
the Nile with some of the adjacent country is delineated. The 
earliest is taken from an Arabian work on geography. In 
this the Mountains of the Moon are depicted about twenty 
degrees south of the equator, and running east to west : from 
the eastern half run five rivers which meet in a small lake ; 
out of this small lake run three rivers which run into a large 
lake, the north of which is south of the equator. The same 
number, i.e. five rivers, run from the west, and passing 
through a small lake, run in three divisions to the same great 
lake, which is called Zambie. Out of this are made to flow 
three rivers, one the Nile, another the Zaire. 
A map by Odoard Lopez makes the centre of Africa a hilly 
country well supplied with lakes and rivers ; all these lakes 
are united, and send their waters in every direction. This 
makes the Zaire, the Zambesi, and the Nile unite, by uniting 
the lakes from which they spring. One of these lakes is 
called the Zaire. It would seem as if there were some 
knowledge of the existence of lakes at the time, whilst a bold 
guess completed the map. 
A third map is ushered in with great ceremony. Kircher 
obtained it from the procurator of India at Rome. It is 
drawn by Peter Pais, a jesuit, who visited the fountains of 
the Nile on the 21st of April, 1618, along with the Emperor 
of Ethiopia. In this the Mountains of the Moon are also 
prominent. On a hill north of them are two fountains, 
“ oculi Nili” or “fontes Nili.” These form the Nile, which 
falls into the lake Bed, on the shores of Goyam, Bed, and 
Dambia. This seems as clear an account of the Blue Nile 
Proceedings— Lit. & Phil. Society— No. 11 .— Session 1863 - 64 . 
