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Show 130 STEPPES AND DESERTS. Journal of the Royal Geogr. Soc. vol. xviii. 1848, pp. 53, 55, and 59-63, with Fred. Werne's instructive expedition for the discovery of the sources of the Nile, Exped. zur. Entd. der Nil-Quellen, 1848, s. 534-536). The lively interest which has again been excited in England for the discovery of the most southern sources of the Nile, induced the above-named Abyssinian traveller Charles Beke, at the recent meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, held at Swansea, August, 1848, to develop more in detail his ideas respecting the connection between the Mountains of the Moon and the Mountains of Habesch. He says :-11 The Abyssinian elevated plain, generally above 8000 feet high, extends towards the south to nearly 9° or 10° N. latitude. The eastern declivity of the highlands has to the inhabitants of the coast the appearance of a mountain chain. The plateau at its southern extremity passes into the Mountains of the Moon, which run, not east and west, but parallel to the coast, or from NNE. to SSW.; extending from 10° N. to 5° S. latitude. The sources of the White Nile are situated in the Mono-Moezi country, probably in 2~ 0 S., not far from where the river Sabaki, on the eastern side of the Mountains of the Moon, falls into the Indian Ocean near Iv.Ielindeh, north of Mombaza. Last autumn (1847), the two Abyssinian missionaries Rebmann and Krapf were still on the coast of Mombaza. They have established in the vicinity, among the W akamba tribe, a missionary station called Rabbay Empire, which promises to be very useful also for geographical discovery. Families belonging to the Wakamba tribe have advanced to the west five or six hundred miles into t.he interior of the country, as far as the upper course of the river Lusidji, the great Lake Nyassi or Zarnbeze (5° S. lat.?), and the sources of the Nile, which are not far distant. An expedition to these sources, which Herr Friedrich Bialloblotzky, of Hanover, is preparing to undertake (by the advice of Beke), is to set out from Mombaza. The Nile coming from the west referred to by the ancients is probably the Bahr-el-Ghazal, or Keilah, which falls into the Nile in 9° N. lat., above the mouth of the Godjeb or Sobat." Russegger's scientific expedition-which by Mehemet Ali's desire was sent to the gold-washings of Fazokl on the Blue (Green) Nile, |
