May- 10, 1858.] 
ADDITIONAL NOTICES. 
221 
Nile, and illustrates to a minor extent the expedition of M. Tbibaut up that 
river (to which journey a short notice following these remarks will be found 
appropriated). 
M. de Lauture informs us at the outset (p. 6), that the Sudan is “ not 
more unhealthy than the French possessions in Africa, that its inhabitants 
are often found very hospitable, and that it is neither difficult to visit it nor 
to become acquainted with it.” Yet in the same page we are apprised that 
it is only persons who have become acclimated to tropical regions, and are 
acquainted with the language, customs, and peculiarities of the nations inha- 
biting them — and especially of those of Arab descent — who are fitted to 
become explorers of the Sudan. He afterwards dilates upon the difficulties 
of obtaining previous information, at all approaching to accuracy, relative to 
the countries which the explorer proposes to visit. As showing how much 
necessity there is for the traveller to be on his guard against mendacity on the 
part of pretended guides, he tells a pleasant story (p. 10) of one of these 
savans , professedly a native of the banks of Lake Chad, who, on being asked 
the route from Sydney to Peking, declared that he knew both places perfectly 
well, that the former was situated near his native locality, and the latter 
twelve days’ journey westward, the route between the two passing, amongst 
other places, through Tripoli ! 
A sketch is given of the hydrography of the region of the Sudan already 
indicated, which includes notices of Lake Chad, the river Chari flowing into 
it from the Lake Koei-dabo, near lat. 7° n., the Lake Debaba in Bagharmi, Lake 
Fitri, the Batha, or chain of marshes which seems to bound Wadai or Bergou 
on the south, together with the Keilah and Kouan rivers, which, uniting near 
Lake Nu (lat. 9^°, long. 29°, according to the chart), would appear to connect 
this system of waters with that of the White Nile. The author next treats 
of the geographical distribution of the animals and the human races inhabiting 
this region. In his remarks on the former he states that in the territory 
watered as above described, an animal with a long moveable horn has been 
rumoured to exist, which he describes as follows : — 44 This monoceros, called 
ab-garu , that is 4 father,’ or 4 master of the horn,’ carries on the forehead a 
long and straight horn, either striped like Egyptian alabaster, or black. This 
horn is moveable on a sort of fleshy and erectile peduncle. The ab-garu 
usually suffers it to fall down in front ; he straightens it for combat, and 
tosses his enemy so as to make the latter fall on a smaller horn situated 
behind the foregoing” (p. 36). This is doubtless the same animal mentioned 
by the Baron von Miiller in his travels in Africa (Journal of the Koyal 
Geographical Society, vol. xx., part 2, p. 283) under the name of the anasa , 
and reported' to him to inhabit the country south of Kordofan. The descrip- 
tions of the long and pendulous horn in both accounts are singularly con- 
sistent, and if confirmed, the unicorn can no longer be considered a fabulous 
animal. M. de Lauture observes on the report of the Africans respecting it, 
44 1 do not guarantee its veracity, but I incline to the belief that the ab-garu 
really exists.” A much less probable rumour is that of the existence of a 
race of men with tails, who have domesticated a race of camels no larger 
than asses, and who are said to live west of the lake Koei-dabo. According to 
our author, however, this legend has currency throughout all the African 
continent. 
In the sections which he has devoted to such meagre portions of the history 
of Central Africa as he has been able to collect, M. de Lauture gives lists of 
successive sovereigns of the Fellatahs, of Bornu, Kanem, Mandara, Kotoko, 
Bagharmi, Fitri, Medogo, Wadai, and Darfur ; but it is to be regretted that 
no corresponding dates can be, or at any rate are, placed against their names, 
so as to indicate their contemporaries in the history of the civilized world. 
Lists of itineraries, and accounts of the domestic industry, institutions, dis- 
