eastward, seems to be meant, either for the largest of the lakes, or for the lakes of that country (of which there are several), collectively. It is no impeachment of this opinion, that the Lybia Palus is placed so far to the west as the meridian of Carthage, whilst the lakes of Wangara appear to be in that of Cyrene; for Ptolemy carries the river Gir, and the capital of the country which represents Bornou, into the centre of Africa; by which he has shortened the course of the Niger, in the same proportion as he had extended that of the Gir, or Wad-al-Gazel. Modern geographers, to the time of D'Anville, were guilty of the same kind of error: Ghana is about 6° too far west, in Delisle's Map.

It may be best to omit any farther remarks on Ptolemy, at present, and to wait the result of future discoveries. In the mean time, those who are curious to read M. D'Anville's Memoir on the subject of "the Rivers in the interior of Africa" will find it in the Mém. Acad. Inscrip. Vol, xxvi.

CHAPTER VII.

Observations on the physical and political Geography of North AfricaNaturally divisible into three Parts-Productive in Gold-Boundary of the Moors and Negroes-the Foulahs, the Leucæthiopes of the : Ancients.

To our view, North Africa appears to be composed of three distinct parts

or members. The FIRST and smallest is a fertile region along the Mediterranean, lying opposite to Spain, France, and Italy (commonly distinguished by the name of Barbary); and which, could we suppose the western bason of the Mediterranean to have once been dry land, (bating a lake or recipient for the surrounding rivers), might be regarded as a part of Europe; as possessing much more of the European, than the African character.

The SECOND part is what may be deemed the body of North Africa, comprized between the Red Sea, and Cape Verd, on the east and west; and having the Great Desert (or Sabara) and its members, on the north; the Ethiopic ocean, and South Africa, on the opposite side. The prominent feature of this immense region, is a vast belt of elevated land, of great breadth, often swelling into lofty mountains, and running generally from west to east, about the tenth degree of latitude. Its western extremity seems to be C. Verd; the mountains of Abyssinia, the eastern. To the north, its ramifications are neither numerous, nor extensive, if we except the elevated tract which turns the Nile to the northward, beyond Abyssinia. Towards the south, no particulars are known, save that a multitude of rivers, some of them very large, descend from that side, and join the Atlantic and Ethiopic seas, from the Rio Grande on the west, to Cape Lopez on the east; proving incontestably that by far the greatest proportion of rain water falls on that

side, during the periodical season of the SW winds; which corresponds in all its circumstances with the same monsoon in India.*

To the north of this belt, with the exception of the Egyptian Nile, the waters conform generally to the direction of the high land; passing at no great distance (comparatively) from its base, to the right and left: as if the surface of the Sahara had a general dip to the southward. These rivers, moreover, receive all their supplies from the south; no streams of any bulk being collected in the Desert.

In order to produce this effect, there must necessarily be a vast hollow in the interior of Africa, between the high land of Nubia on the east, and Manding on the west; and of which the mountains and Desert form the other two sides. Nor is this state of things unexampled in the other continents. In Asia, the hollow, to whose waters the Caspian and Aral serve as recipients, is no less extensive than the one just mentioned; reckoning from the sources of the Wolga to those of the Oxus; (which latter has ever communicated with the Caspian, either throughout the year, or during a part of it:) the difference is, that in Asia, a greater portion of the hollow is filled up with water, than in Africa.

The THIRD part is of course, the Great Desert (or Sahara), and its members; consisting of the lesser deserts of Bornou, Bilma, Barca, Sort, &c. This may be considered as an OCEAN OF SAND, presenting a surface equal in extent to about one half of Europe, and having its gulfs, and bays; as also its islands, fertile in groves and pastures, and in many instances containing a great population, subject to order and regular government. The

T

* A ridge stretches to the south, through the middle of South Africa, and forms an impenetrable barrier between the two coasts. M. CORREA DE SERRA informs me, that the Portugeze in Congo and Angola, have never been able to penetrate to the coast of the Indian ocean.

- Mr. Bruce learnt (Vol. iii. p. 668) that a high chain of mountains from 6° runs southward through the middle of Africa. He supposes the gold of Sofala to be drawn from these mountains. (p. 669.)

+ Circumstances have shewn, that it declines to the eastward also.

"A wild expanse of lifeless sand and sky!". Thomson.

great body, or western division of this OCEAN, comprized between Fezzan and the Atlantic, is no less than 50 caravan journies across, from north to south; or from 750 to 800 G. miles; and double that extent, in length: without doubt the largest desert in the world. This division contains but a scanty portion of islands (or oases) and those also of small extent: but the eastern division has many; and some of them very large. Fezzan, Gadamis, Taboo, Ghanat, Agadez, Augela, Berdoa, are amongst the principal ones: besides which, there are a vast number of small ones. In effect, this is the part of Africa alluded to by Strabo,* when he says from Cneius Piso, that Africa may be compared to a leopard's skin. I conceive the reason why the oases are more common here, than in the west, is, that the stratum of sand is shallower, from its surface, to that of the earth which it covers. In other words, that the water contained in that earth, is nearer to the surface; as in most of the oases it springs up spontaneously.+ Can any part of the cause be assigned to the prevalent easterly winds, which, by driving the finer particles of sand to leeward, may have heaped it up to a higher level in the Sahara, than elsewhere?

The springs, no doubt, have produced the oases themselves, by enabling useful vegetables to flourish, and consequently population to be established.

• Page 130.

+ Water is found at the depth of a few feet, in Fezzan (Afr. Assoc. Q. p. 96: O. p. 146). The same is said by Pliny, concerning this quarter of Africa; lib. v. c. 5. But farther to the NW, on the edge of the Desert, and in the country of Wadreag in particu lar (Shaw, p. 135.), wells are dug to an amazing depth, and water mixed with fine sand, springs up suddenly, and sometimes fatally to the workmen. The Doctor tells us, that the people call this abyss of sand and water," the sea below ground." Exactly the same state of things exists in the country round London, where the sand has in several cases nearly filled up the wells. (See Phil. Trans. for 1797.) The famous well lately dug by EARL SPENCER (at Wimbledon), of more than 560 feet in depth, has several hundred feet of sand in it.

↑ Ships that have sailed at a great distance from the African coast, opposite to C. Blanco and C. Bojador, have had their rigging filled with fine sand, when the wind blew strong off shore. The accumulation of the Bissago shoals may have been partly owing to this cause also. They occupy the position where a great eddy of the general southerly current takes place, between C. Verd and Sherbro'.

That the Desert has a dip towards the east, as well as the south, seems to be proved by the course of the Niger, also. Moreover, the highest points of North Africa, that is to say, the mountains of Mandinga and Atlas, are situa ted very far to the west.

The Desert, for the mort part, abounds with salt. But we hear of salt mines only, in the part contiguous to Nigritia, from whence salt is drawn for the use of those countries, as well as of the Moorish states adjoining; there being no salt in the Negro countries south of the Niger.* There are salt lakes also, in the eastern part of the Desert.

The great ridge of mountains, and its branches, are very productive in gold; but more particularly in the quarters opposite to Manding and Bambouk on the west, and Wangara, on the east. It may perhaps admit of a doubt, whether the gold is brought down at the present time, by the numerous fountains that form the heads of the Niger and Senegal rivers; or whether it has been deposited in the lower parts of their beds, at an earlier period of the world; and that the search, instead of being facilitated by the periodical floods, is, on the contrary, only to be pursued with effect, when the waters are low.

Tombuctoo is reckoned the mart of the Mandinga gold, from whence it is distributed over the northern quarters of Africa, by the merchants of Tunis, Tripoly, Fezzan, and Morocco; all of whom resort to Tombuctoo. Most of it, no doubt, afterwards finds its way into Europe. It may be remarked, also, that the Gold Coast of Guinea (so called, doubtless, from its being the place of traffic for gold dust), is situated nearly opposite to Manding: but whether the gold brought thither, has been washed out of the mountains, by the northern or southern streams, I know not: it may be by both; for a part of the gold of Wangara is brought for sale to the southern coast.t

• This quality of the African Desert was familiarly known to Herodotus (Melpom. c. 181, et seq.) He knew also that there was salt in abundance in the northern parts. But as it would appear that the inhabitants in that quarter can furnish themselves with salt of a better quality from the sea, the mines are not wrought.

+ Some writers have said, that there are gold mines in the neighbourhood of Mina, on