The Massachusetts spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1831-1858, 1832-11-21
NO. 3l12.
THE NIGER.
25,000,000 SOULS In THE CENTRE y,
AFRICA-TRAyELs OF THE LANnp,s

Clapperton, has published the travels he
undertook after the death of that uIfortu-
nate officer,-and to so humble an individnl
al do we owe the greatest addition to geo.
graphical knowledge that has, perhaps, ever
been made viz: the whole course of the
| Niger, through tropical country the
most fertile, inhabited by the computed
| number Of 25,000,000 blacks, many having
/ made some advances in civilization. We
! shall ALLOW one Of the English periodicals to
speak for us -
"Thc travellers, in embarking on the At
lantic, had solved the greatest problem, in
Africa, and even in modern geography -
one which had exercised the ingenuity and
conjecture Of so many learned enquirers,
and III the efforts to solve which so many
brave and distinguished Adventures had
persisted. This discovery Invested the Nj
ger of that singular and mysterious charac-
ter, which had been one chief cause of the
interest that it had excited-when seen roll
ling its ample food from the sea to vast
unknown regions in the interior. The cir
cult by which it reaches the Atlantic assimi-
Iates its character to that Of ordinary rivers,
without any much more remarkable wind
ings than are found in others of similar
length. 1t displays, however, magnitude
considerably greater Than had been sug-
gested by any former observation.
We can now truce very distinctly the en-
tire line Of this great river. Its source,
though not actually visited, seems ascer-
tanned by Laing to exist in the high coun-
try of Klssi, about 200 miles in the interior
from Sierra Leone. Thence it rolls through
Footta Jallo and Kanhan, where Cailie
describes himself 10 have found il a rapid
and considerable stream. At Bammakoe,
having received the tributary from Sankari
in Manding, which Park mistook for the
main river, it Degins its course over the fine
plain of Bambarra, where it forms noble
stream and in passing Sego, the capital,
has been considered as equallinp the
Thames at Westminster. Thence It pur=<
sues north-westerly course, and flowing
through the lake Dibbie, reaches Timbuc-
too. Its course from that city to YOUR has
not yet been delineated but the fact that
Park navigated down from one place to
the other, fully establishes the continuity.
During this reach the Niger makes great
change of direction from northeast to all
most due south. From YOUR to the sea, il
was navigated by the present travellers, and
was found following generally a southern
direction, though making in one part rapid
bend TO the east, whence it gradually re-
49,.
from the source 10 Timbuctoo, and the other
from that city to the sea, we shall have
nearly 1000 miles which may be considered
as the direct course; and the various wind
lngs must raise the whole line of the
stream to upwards of 5000 miles. For sew
eral hundred miles of its lower course, it
forms broad and magnificent expanse. re-
semblIng an inland sea. The Niger must
after all yield considerably to the Missouri
and Orellana, those stupendous rivers of the
new world. But it appears at least as great
as any Of those which water the old CONT
nents. There can rank with it only the
Nile, and the Ydngtse-kiang, or Great Riy-
er of China. But the upper course of neith-
er is yet fully ascertained -; and the Nile
can compete only in the length of course,
not in the magnitude of its stream, or the
fertility of the regions which it waters.
There is one feature in which the Niger
may defy competition from any river, either
of the old or new world. This is in the
grandeur of its Delta. Along the whole
coast, from the river of Formosa or Benin
to that of Old Calabar, about 300 miles in
length, there open into the Atlantic its sue
cessive estuaries. which nayigators have
scarcely been able 10 number. Taking
this coast as the base Of the triangle or
Delta, and its vortex at Kirree, about ITO
miles inland, where the Formosa branch
separates, we have space of upwards of
$4,000 square miles, equal to the half of
England. Had this Delta, like that Of the
Nile. been subject only to the temporary in
undations, leaving behind a layer of fertiliz-
ing slime, it would he the most fruitful re-
gion on earth, and might have been almost
the granaIy of continent. But unfortu-
nafely the Niger rolls down its waters in such
excessive abundance, as to convert the
whole into huge and dreary swamp, COW
cred with dense forests of mangrove, and
other trees of spreading and luxuriant foi-
age. The equatorial sun, with its ferctst
rays cannot penetrate these dark recesses
it only exhales from them pestilentai va
pofs, which render this coast the theatre Of
more fatal epidemic diseases than any other,
even of Western Africa. That human in
,lustry will one day, level these forests.
drain these swamps, and cover this soil with
luxuriant hafvests, we may confidently an
ticipate: but many ages must probably
elapse before man, in Africa, can achieve
such victory over nature.
The countries rendered accessible by the
Niger and lis tributaries are undoubtedly
the most productive and industrious in ali
Africa and their population, notwithstand-
ing the difficulty of forming any precise es-
innate, can scarcely be rated at less than
twenty five millions. 1t seems impossible
that British enterprise can find access to
such region, without drawing from it very
considerable results"
The following extraordinary instance of The
different effect of various vegetables, some of
them poisonous, upon different ANIMALS, are
mentioned by the Botanical Professor, in d re-
cent lecture delivered at Kings College,
" Horses" says Mr.. Burnett, will not touch
crucifcrous plants, but will feed on tho red
grasses, amidst abundance of which goats have
been known to starve: and these latter again
will eat and grow fat on the water hemlock
which is rank poison to other cattle. In like
manner pigs will iced on henhane, wlrile the,
are destroyed by common pepper and tn,
horse which avoids the bland turnip, will grow
lat on rhubarb, and take n drachin of arseni
daily with advantage."-Engiish paper
! SKELETON MADE FROM Wiitcw Tart
Some years ago, skeleton was made by one .
the first artists in London, according to an or
der received from an Hindoo Nabob, desirou
r of understanding the structure Of the huma
i. body, but whose religion prohibited him iror
! touching any thing formerly possessed of lf
II was IN AIDE of willnv md nea, traa and co.