dicular in a sloping bed of mica slate about three hundred yards in length.

Beyond Inga, or the termination of the narrows, the river again began to expand to the width of two, three, and even more than four miles in width, flowing with a gentle current from two to three miles an hour; and not far from the point where Captain Tuckey was compelled to abandon the further prosecution of the journey, which was about one hundred miles beyond Inga, or two hundred and eighty miles from Cape Padron, it is said that the river put on a most majestic appearance; that the scenery was beautiful, and not inferior to any on the banks of the Thames; that the natives of this part all agreed in stating that they knew of no impediment to the continued navigation of the river upwards; that higher up it divided into two branches; and that the only obstruction, in that to the north-east, was a single ledge of rocks, forming a kind of rapid, over which, however, canoes were able to

pass.

Though the question of the identity of the Niger and the Zaire remains pretty much in the same state of uncertainty in which it was previously to the expedition, we entirely concur in the opinion of the editor, which was also clearly that of Captain Tuckey, that the Zaire has its origin in Northern Africa. The arguments in favour of this hypothesis appear to us to be incontrovertible. The Zaire, like other tropical rivers, has its periodical floods; but they are less than in most rivers; the difference between the highest and the lowest elevation, as marked on the rocks, no where exceeding eleven feet; and in several places not more than eight or nine. On the 1st of September it was observed to rise, above Yellala, three inches; on the 17th, at the Tall Trees, near the mouth, seven feet; the velocity continuing nearly the same, and not a single shower of rain having fallen. It was still the dry season to the southward of the line; but it had only risen four feet higher in the wet season: the main supply, therefore, could not be in Southern Africa, where every thing was dried up, but in the northern part of that continent, where the rains had been prevailing for five or six months,

It is mentioned as a minute in Captain Tuckey's Journal-' extraordinary great rise of the river shews it to issue from some lake which had received almost the whole of its water from the north of the line'—and, in a private letter written from Yellala in his way up, he observes, that, 'combining his observations with the information which he had been able to collect from the natives, vague and trifling as it was, he could not help thinking that the Zaire would be found to issue from some large lake, or chain of lakes, considerably to the northward of the line;'-and he conceives that the low

state

1

state of the river in July and August gave additional weight to this hypothesis—' provided,' he adds, the river should begin to swell in the early part of September, an event I am taught to expect, and for which I am anxiously looking out.' The river did begin to swell at the precise period he had anticipated, and he notes down in his journal in two words hypothesis confirmed.' The inconveniences and difficulties experienced in their progress upwards, the loss of their canoes and baggage, but, above all, the fatigue and sickness which overcame the party, prevented them from keeping any regular journal, and towards the conclusion of the journey we find only a few desultory memoranda. The reasoning, therefore, which Captain Tuckey might have employed to establish his hypothesis is supplied by the editor.

He supposes the southern outlet of the lakes of Wangara to be about the twelfth parallel of northern latitude, which, by making allowance for the winding of the river, may be about one thousand six hundred miles from the point where Captain Tuckey first observed the Zaire to rise. These lakes, according to the accounts of the Arabian geographers, begin to overflow towards the middle or end of August. Supposing them to commence overflowing the first week in August, and the current in the Channel which receives them to move at the rate of two and a half miles an hour (the average rate above the narrows) the flooded stream would reach that spot in the first week of September, and swell the river just at the time and in the manner noticed by Captain Tuckey. The manner, indeed, is as remarkable as the coincidence in point of time, and we think the editor has hit on the precise ground on which Captain Tuckey adopted the idea of its issuing from a lake. This idea of a lake seems to have arisen from the "extraordinary quiet rise" of the river, which was from three to six inches in twenty-four hours, If the rise of the Zaire had proceeded from rains to the southward of the line, swelling the tributary streams and pouring in mountain torrents the waters into the main channel, the rise would have been sudden and impetuous, but coming on as it did in a quiet and regular manner, it could proceed only from the gradual overflowing of a lake.' This we think decisive, both as to its northern origin and its proceeding out of a lake-but whether that lake be Wangara or some other, we pretend not to decide. That the Niger does not terminate in the lakes and swamps of Ghana or Wangara, we maintained, with all due deference to the contrary opinion of Major Rennell, in a former Article. One of our arguments against that opinion, we here find insisted on at considerable length, namely; that the waters of every lake in the known world, which has no outlet, are and necessarily must be salt-as may be instanced in the Caspian, the Aral and other lakes of Asia, the Asphaltites

Asphaltites or Dead Sea, &c. The waters of Wangara in particular, under such a supposition, would be more than ordinarily salt, as every river in Africa is loaded with saline impregnations; and the Niger, in its long easterly course, collecting the streamlets from the sandy and saline soil of the desert, where almost every plant is saturated with salt, must convey so large a quantity into this great reservoir, as to leave on the margin, when the water was evaporated, an annual incrustation of it; but, according to the Arabian writers, salt is carried to Wangara as an article of traffic, to exchange for gold. If, therefore, the Niger flows into Wangara, it most probably also flows out of it-and whither so likely as into the Zaire or Congo? The editor observes, that if any faith could be placed in Sidi Hamet's account of Wassanah, as given to Riley, the two streams of the Niger and the Zaire would be brought to approximate within a very short distance. The name of Zudi (observes the editor) given by this Arab merchaut to the Niger at Wassanah, that of Zad, which Horneman learned to be its name to the eastward of Tombuctoo, where it turned off to the southward; the Enzaddi, which Maxwell says is the name given to the cataracts of the Zaire, and the Moienzi Enzaddi, which Captain Tuckey understood to be the name of the river at Embomma, are so many concurring circumstances which give a favourable, though a faint colour to the hypothesis of the identity of the two rivers.'

The country through which this great river descends, as far at least as the expedition proceeded, is not very interesting either as to its general appearance, its natural products, or the condition of its inhabitants. The mountains which form the narrows and rapids of the river, though not exceeding two thousand feet in height, are destitute of arborescent plants, and the lower ranges of hills are not clothed with those forests of perpetual verdure which are usually met with in tropical climates. The large trees are only found in the valleys, or thinly sprinkled over the sides aud summits of the hills; those which chiefly characterize the landscape, and appear to be very general along the whole extent of the shores, are said to be the Adansonia, Bombax pentandrum, Anthocleista, Musanga of the natives, (the genus related to Cecropia,) Elaeis guiniensis, Raphia vinifera and Pandanus Candelabrum. On the alluvial banks, the Mangrove, mixed with the palm, the Adansonia and the Bombax, with intermediate patches of the Egyptian papyrus, forms the grand feature of the vegetation. The principal articles of food are maize, cassava both sweet and bitter, two kinds of pulse, the Cytisus cajan, and a species of phaseolus, and ground nuts (Arachis hypogaa.) The common yam, and another species of Dioscorea, so bitter as to require 'four days boiling

to

to free it from its pernicious qualities,' sugar-cane, capsicum and tobacco, were among the alimentary plants of secondary importance. The most valuable fruits observed were the plantain, the papaw, limes and oranges, pine-apples, pumpkins, the tamarind, and a fruit about the size of a small plum, called Safu. The plant, however, of most importance to the natives, is the Elaeis guiniensis, or the oil-palm, from which is extracted the best palm-wine, though this beverage is procured from two other species, the Raphia vinifera, and that which Professor Smith supposed to be an Hyphæne. These palms are to the natives of Congo what the cocoa-tree is to many of the Asiatic islanders. The indigenous fruits are, the Anona Senegalensis, Sarcocephalus, a species of cream-fruit, Chrysobalanus Icaco, a species of Ximenia, and another of Antidesina.

'It is particularly deserving of attention,' Mr. Brown observes, that the greater part of the plants now enumerated, as cultivated on the banks of the Congo, and among them nearly the whole of the most important species, have probably been introduced from other parts of the world, and do not originally belong even to the continent of Africa. Thus it may be stated with confidence, that the maize, the manioc, or cassava, and the pine-apple, have been brought from America, and probably the papaw, the capsicum and tobacco; while the banana or plantain, the lime, the orange, the tamarind and the sugar-cane, may be considered as of Asiatic origin.' (Ap. p. 469.)

The observations which follow on the dispersion of plants, and the arguments made use of in tracing some of the most remarkable ones to their native country, are highly ingenious and interesting. Indeed the essay of Mr. Brown, containing nearly seventy pages, is arranged in so clear and perspicuous a manner, is so abundant in facts and philosophical reasoning, and displays such depth of research, as will, we think, establish his character as the first botanist of the age. Mr. Brown is friendly to the system of natural orders, as more philosophical and more capable of giving a broad and extended view of the vegetable part of the creation than the artificial arrangement of Linnæus; in this, as an English botanist, we believe he is singular, and we are not sorry for it. The Linnæan method, artificial as it is, must be considered as the best dictionary of nature that has yet been made, and the best adapted for assisting in the study of her language: it is, besides, the most perfect index that has ever been invented for tracing the object of which we are in search: it has its anomalies, but the system of natural orders has more; both, however, are worthy of cultivation, and may on most occasions be brought in aid of each other-but we cannot afford to digress.* The general statement of the propor*The comparative merits of the two systems are fairly and ably stated by Sir James Smith in the Supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica,' Article 'Botany.'

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tion of new genera and species, contained in Professor Smith's Herbarium, is thus given by Mr. Brown:

C The whole number of species in the collection is about six hundred and twenty; but as specimens of about thirty of these are so imperfect as not to be referable to their proper genera, and some of them not even to natural orders, its amount may be stated at five hundred and ninety species.

Of these about two hundred and fifty are absolutely new nearly an equal number exist also in different parts of the west coast of equinoctial Africa, and not in other countries; of which, however, the greater part are yet unpublished: and about seventy are common to other intratropical regions.

Of unpublished genera there are thirty-two in the collection; twelve of which are absolutely new, and three, though observed in other parts of this coast of equinoctial Africa, had not been found before in a state sufficiently perfect, to ascertain their structure; ten belong to different parts of the same line of coast; and seven are common to other countries. "No natural order, absolutely new, exists in the herbarium; nor has any family been found peculiar to equinoctial Africa.'-Ap. p. 485. And he adds,

The extent of Professor Smith's herbarium proves not only the zeal and activity of my lamented friend, but also his great acquirements in that branch of science, which was his more particular province, and to his excessive exertions in the investigation of which he fell a victim, in the ill fated expedition to Congo.'-Ap. p. 485.

The animals appear to be those chiefly which are found in every part of this great continent, lions, leopards, elephants, buffaloes, antelopes, wild hogs, porcupines, hares, monkeys, &c. A long list of birds, fishes, and inferior animals, is given in the Appendix, by Doctor Leach, many of which appear to have hitherto been unknown. The river abounds with good fish; and it abounds also with those huge monsters, the hippopotamus and the crocodile of the Nile.

Domestic animals are of few species and scarce. The natives have hogs, goats, fowls, muscovy ducks and pigeons; a few sheep, generally spotted, and with hair instead of wool. They appear to be uncleanly feeders, being seldom at the trouble of picking the feathers from the fowls, or removing the skin, much less the hair, from the flesh of goats, which they devour when scarcely warmed by the fire, tearing it in pieces with their teeth.

Few of the villages seen along the line of the Zaire contained more than a hundred huts; these were mostly placed amidst groves of the palm and adansonia. They consist generally of six pieces; the better kind being constructed of palm leaves matted together with considerable skill; their bedding is also of palm leaves, as are their baskets; they have gourds or calabashes for bowls,

earthen