It Is Scarcely Possible, Therefore, That The Latter Point Can Be Less, Taking The Cataracts Into Consideration Than 1500 Feet Above The Sea, Whereas The Following Considerations Lead To The Belief That The Tchadda Is Not More Than 500 Feet In Height.

We learn from the information of Clapperton, confirmed and amplified by that of Lander, that there exists a ridge,

Which about Kano and Kashna, extends forth the Yeu to the Lake Tchadda on one side, and on the other the river of Soccatoo, which joins the Quorra at a distance from the sea of about 500 miles, measured in the manner above mentioned. A similar process of measurement gives a length of 1700 miles to the whole course of the Quorra, the sources of which, according to Major Laing, are about 1600 feet above the sea; the stream, therefore, has an average fall of something less than a foot in a mile in lines of 100 geographical miles. This would give to the confluence of the river of Soccatoo with the Quorra, a height of less than 500 feet above the sea, but as that confluence occurs above the most rapid part of the main stream, 500 feet seem to be very nearly the height.

As a knowledge of the origin and course of rivers, conducts in every country to that of the relative altitude and directions of its highlands, the late discoveries on the waters of Africa have thrown great light on its orography. The sources of the largest, or rather longest of its rivers, namely, the white or true Nile, now appears to be in a point nearly equidistant from the Indian and Atlantic Oceans in one direction, and from the Mediterranean and the Cape of Good Hope on the other.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 1086 of 1124
Words from 298739 to 299033 of 309561