36 Scientific Reviews. 
junction with certain other rivers, conjecture conducts to the Gulf- 
of Guinea. neat 
3. Major Rennell, in support of his particular views, advances 
some powerful arguments against the possibility of the Niger com- 
municating with the Egyptian Nile. He contends against Pliny 
and the Arabians, that the Niger could not pass through Wangara 
to the Nile, because of the difference of level throngh which these 
two rivers flow,—the bed of the Nile being higher than the plane 
down which the waters of the Niger incline ; and because the in- 
undations of the Nile do not remain so long after the subsidence of 
the Niger as they must if the latter discharged itself into the for- 
mer. However, at the very time that the hypothesis of Reichard 
was in possession of some degree of attention, this ancient opinion 
again forced itself upon the public mind. Mr Jackson, a British 
eonsul, received oral information from one who had visited Tom- 
buctoo, tending to substantiate the identity of the Niger and Nile, 
upon the authority of seventeen negroes, who had navigated the 
river from Tombuctoo to Cairo. The voyagers were, however, 
obliged several times to transport their canoe overland, from de- 
ficiency of water in the river’s course. | 
4. But of all the theories which have been promulgated, the 
greatest importance has been attached to that which was suggested 
py a Mr Maxwell to Park, at the time he was preparing for his 
second voyage. From the magnitude and velocity with which the 
river Congo or Zaire rushes into the Atlantic, in south lat. 63°, 
from its unknown origin, and from the southern direction of the 
Niger, or a branch of that river, it was hazarded that this might 
be the embouchure of our mysterious stream. And influenced by 
the firmest conviction of this termination to the Niger, Park again 
set out (in 1805) with the hope of navigating along the object of 
his anxious curiosity, through Wangara, and thence into the Zaire. 
The result of his unwieldy expedition is but too well known ; and 
though since that pericd Captain Tuckey has fallen a victim in the 
same cause, Europe still remains in her original uncertainty as to 
the termination of the Niger and the source of the Zaire. 
Thus the matter stood, no clue appearing in the labyrinth of 
doubt, when there stcod forth, garbed in a proper confidence, a new ~ 
candidate for immortality, (p. 72.) whose labours come now under 
our review. 
From what slight causes do great deeds arise! It happened to 
Sir Rufane Donkin, during the leisure and inactivity to which he 
has been reduced by the victories of his great commander, that he 
should be. “ struck with the very general application of the name 
or term blue, or black, to large rivers ;” and conceiving that the 
name of the Niger originated in the blackness or depth of its wa- 
ters,—an opinion which he afterwards discovered to be erroneous,— 
forthwith he set about to frame a book. We do most sincerely 
congratulate our country, pre-eminent in the production of con- 
vertible talent, on the facility with which our heroes of to-day, can 
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