10.^ Dr Bro^vn on the Coj'respondence het',Men Mr' Park 
by the water of the Loch of Skaill oozing along the rocks upon 
which it rested, and upon which the mass of leaves now rests, 
held together by the fibres of the roots of the trees. 
AiiT. XIX. — Account of the Correspondence between Mr Park 
and Mr Maxwell^ respecting the Identity of the Congo 
and the Niger. By the Bev. William Brown, D. D. Mini- 
ster at Eskdalemuir. Communicated by the Author 
It has been for sometime understood among the relations and 
intimate friends of Mr Park, that the object of his second journey 
into the interior of Africa was to ascertain the termination of the 
>Jiger, and especially w'hether or not the Congo was the outlet 
of tb.at river. 
The first idea of the identity of the Congo and the Niger, 
was suggested by Mr William Keir, at Milnholm, near Lang- 
holm, Dumfriesshire, in consequence of information which he 
had obtained (many years before the appearance of Mr Park’s 
Travels) from his friend Mr George Maxwell at Prior’s Lynn, 
in the parish of Canonby, concerning the river Congo, which he 
had frequently visited in the earlier part of his life as Master of 
a trading vessel, and of which he had constructed a chart. Ac- 
cording to Mr Maxwell, the river Congo, 150 miles from the 
sea, (the height to which his boats w^ent), is about a mile and a 
half wide, having from SO feet depth of w^ater with the boat’s 
'side touching the cliff, to 300 feet in the centre, a wddth and 
depth which continue the same for 60 or 70 miles farther down, 
where the river is confined between stupendous precipices of 
grey rock, fringed with trees. At 27 or 30 miles from the sea, 
in 6° 10' south latitude,- which may be called its proper mouth, 
it is about 3 miles broad, and from 20 feet depth of w^ater close 
in with the shore to 400 feet in the centre. Even at the latter 
** This interesting paper has been kindly communicated to us by Dr Bro-wn, 
who is in possession of the original correspondence. It was drawn up in 1811, 
and submitted to Mr Keir and Mr Maxwell, the last of whom made several cor- 
rections on the ?vIS. — Ko. 
