Scientific Reviews. 35° 
tains of Mauritania, others supposed its primitive waters to flow in» 
union with those of the Nile, and Leo affirms that it issues from a 
lake south of Bornou. It is now decided, from observation, that 
the great central river of Africa rises in the northern declivities of 
the Kong mountains, between 9° and 10° W. of Greenwich. 
When it has been stated that this noble river, called by the va- 
rious names of Niger, Dhioliba or Joliba, Quorra or Quolla, and 
Nile of the Negroes, pursues an eastward direction, through Lake 
t 
Dibbie, past Tombuctoo, and to the south of Houssa, we have ad- 
vanced to the limits of our knowledge, unless we add, from Clap- 
perton, that a river named Quorra, (which, however, is a mere ge- 
neric name, signifying great river,) possibly a branch of the Niger, 
flows to the south, past Funda, in lat. 8° 15’, but whither we 
know not. 
Having brought our river to this incomplete termination, it must. 
mow be relinquished as a legitimate object of contention between 
those tarry-at-home travellers who have made themselves so pro- 
minent in the discussion. But it is with reluctance that we pro- 
ceed to inflict upon our readers the repetition of the conflicting 
opinions which have, by mere collision, so long maintained their 
unprofitable existence: nothing but our duty to the uninformed, 
should rescue these ‘“‘ whimsies of the brain” from their merited 
neglect. 
1. When Park was told by the traders of Tombuctoo and Hous- 
sa, that the Niger which he had discovered runs “ towards the 
rising sun to the end of the world,” data were given to Major 
Rennell for the first theory which obtained in this country. The 
testimony of both ancient and modern writers, also led him to the 
opinion of D’Anville,* that Wangara was the great receptacle of the 
Niger, and he conceived that the waters of this and other rivers, 
spread out over those vast marshes, were dissipated by the evapo- 
rating power of a tropical sun. The eminent geographical learn- 
ing evinced by the author of this opinion, was alone sufficient to 
entitle it to reception ; but from the ingenious contrivance of his 
arguments, principally of a negative character, additional support 
was derived, and his theory long held undisputed sway. 
2. The Ephémérides Géographiques for 1803, contained the 
second hypothesis, emanating from M. Reichard. It was the opi- 
nion of this geographer, that the Niger, instead of terminating in 
Wangara, turns round to the south-west, and enters the Atlantic 
at the Bight of Benin, by the mouths of the rivers Formosa and Rio 
del Rey. Calculating the supposed bulk of water poured into 
Wangara by the Niger and other streams, and comparing with it 
the imaginary quantity which could be evaporated from the marshes, 
whose extent he knew not, he assumes a surplus which, in con- 
* D’Anville supposed that the Niger terminated at Lake Reghebil in Wan- 
para. See his Treatise ‘* on the Rivers of the Interior of Africa,’? Acad. des 
Inscript. tom. xxvi. 
‘ 
