The Sumter banner. [volume] (Sumterville, S.C.) 1846-1855, 1849-05-01
SOUR Ul1ss 20 TIfE NIL EDIS.
/, ,GDrERIE ES. - ,>s--

The last number Gf Ihttell'B Living
Ago has d remarkably interesting arti:
elo on Werne's expedition to the esour-
oes Of The Nile. This wonderful stream
our readera know, has never been trac.
cd TO its source, which is somewhere in
the interior of Africa. The Nile has
two branches, called the Blue Nile and
'theWhite Nile. The sources Of the for
mer Of, these was discovered by Bruce,
5 in the interior Of Abyssinia, but such
was the popular belief that the sources
of the Nile could not be discovered,
that Bruce was not believed Ono of
the best modern travellers, who told
very accurate story, was not believed,
!, because it was Incredible that the
springs Of the Nile should be known, or
that peculiar race Of blacks should
exist as were. found in these regions of
ancient Ethiopia!
Believed or not, however, Bruce's
account was true. He did discover the
springs of the Nile, but the Blue Nile
was much the shortest branch. bore
the same relation to the White Nile
(whichis the real river, as the Upper
mississippi does to the Missouri. It
is the inferior branch. The real source
of the Nile remained to be discovered,
and is not known.
The White Stream, (Nile, which is
the Western branch, is the largest
Prior to the expedition fitted out by
Mehemed Allin 1880, and in which MIR.
Werne was passenger, the farthest
point reached up the Nile was in lati.
tudc about 10 degrees. But, although
the source is not yet exactly known,
we do know that it is worry near, if not
jast exactly on the equator.
MI. Verne, in this expedition, reach
cd latitude 4 degrees, or nearly 400
miles beyond the previously ascertained
limit. There was an obstruction or fall
in the stream, and it grow narrower as
Mr.. Verne thought; but it was quite
certain its sources were yet several
hundreds Of miles further. The sour.
ces Of the Nile and the Niger will prob.
ably be found not far apart. They are
said to be in the "Mountains of the
Moon," butwho knows any thing of the
Moon? No one. There are unknown
lands which may yet reward some fur
ther adventurers with the fame of dis
coyery.
VI tits most curious, that the lat. a (to
which Mr.. Verne penetrated) is sever
al degrees beyond the point at which
the heads of the Nile are placed on our
common maps, while it is certain that
the real springs were yet hundreds of
miles beyond lat. 4. All our ideas of
Central Africa, Generally represented
as q desert,) are doranged by the fact,
/ that Mr.. Verne found these remote re-
i,gions luxurant in foliage, and inhabited
by dense warns of people! These
people were, some of them, gigantic in
stature, while they were most savage
in life,
The voyage of this Egyptian expe-
! dition was one of peculiar interest. It
has but recently been given to the En-
glish public. Mr.. Verne being Ger
man, Blackwoods Magazine thus speaks
oft.
We can conceive few things moro ex-
citing than such a voyage as Mt. Verne
has accomplished and recorded. Star
ting from the outposts of civilization, he
sailed into the very heart of Africa, up
stream whose upper waters we're then
for the first time furrowed by vessels
larger than sayage's canoe-a stream
of such gigantic proportions, that its
width, at thousand miles from the sea
gave it the aspect of lake rather than
of river. The brute creation wero
in proportion with the magnitude of
the water-course. The hippopottamus
reared his huge snout above the sur
face, and wallowed in the gullies that
on either hand run down to the stream;
enormous crocodiles gaped along the
shore; elephants played in herds upon
the. pastures; the tall giraffe stalked
among the lofty palms; snakes thick as
trees lay coiled in the Shiny swamps;
and ant hills, ten feet high, lowered
above the rushes. Along the thickly
peopled banks hordes Of sayages show
ed themselves, gazing in wonder at the
strange ships, and making ambiguous
gestures, as signs Of friendship or hos
tility. Alternately sailing or towing,
as the wind served or not; constantly in
sight Of natives, but rarely communica-
ting with 'them;. often cut off for days
from land by interminable fields of tan
lnI I 4.