necessary to make the geographical nature of the question well
understood; and we shall content ourselves with remarking, that the
discovery of the termination of the Quorra, or Niger, tends to throw a
degree of improbability upon the narrative of that individual, which it
will require much ingenuity to explain away. It is certain that the
latitude given to Timbuctoo by the editor of those travels, and upon
which sufficient ridicule has already been thrown in the Edinburgh
Geographical Journal, may be considered as an error entirely of the
editor's, who, by taking it upon himself, will relieve the burden of the
mistake from the traveller, and thus lighten the weighty doubts which
might in consequence bear upon the remainder of the details; for the
situation of that city, as given by Jomard, is quite inconsistent with
the situation it must be in, from the ascertained source, direction, and
termination of the river. There can be no doubt but that a portion of
the labours presented to the public as the travels of Caillié are
founded upon valid documents, wherever obtained, and probably most of
the errors are those of the editor. But though authorities can be found
in support of the division of the Quorra into two branches; one of
which, the Joliba, flows to the north-west, and the other in an almost
opposite direction,--fact which has no analogy in geography, and, what
is better, no existence in nature; yet no authority can be found for
placing Timbuctoo on a river flowing north from the Niger.

The details which will be given to us by the results of this successful
expedition will, then, not only be of assistance in allying the existing
condition of things with the knowledge of the ancients, but it will
enable us to reduce to a few facts the many contradictory statements
which have originated in the variety of the sources of information, and
the individual and national rivalry which the interest of the question
gave birth to among the geographers of the present day. It will also be