SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY.


* * * * *


GEOGRAPHICAL.

_The Niger_.


Sir Rufane Donkin's new hypothesis respecting the Nile, briefly stands
thus: The Niger (Ni-Geir) passes through Wangara, and emptying itself
into the Wad-El Ghazeh, or Nile of Bornou, which is formed by the
continuation of the Misselad (Geir) through Lake Fittre, flows under the
sands of Bilmah into the Mediterranean Sea. Sir Rufane is likewise of
opinion--that "reasoning from analogy, and still more from what we know
of the nature of the country, I have no doubt but that in very remote
ages, the united Niger and Geir did roll into the sea in all the
magnificence of a mighty stream, forming a grand estuary or harbour
where now the quicksand is."--"The question to be solved under such a
supposition is, what revolution in nature can have produced so great a
change in the face of the country, as to cause a great river which once
flowed into the sea, to stop short in a desart of sand." "We know from
all recent, as well as from some of the older modern travellers, that
the sands of the desarts west of Egypt, are encroaching on, and
narrowing the valley of the Nile of Egypt. We see the pyramids gradually
diminishing in height, particularly on their western sides, and we read
of towns and villages which have been buried in the desart, but which
once stood in fertile soils, some of whose minarets were still visible a