Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1890-06-26

and taller. AT 20 miles we see few
acaciR scrubs dotting tho plain every 400
yards or SO, then very thin, struggling
gronp, which, in Days march, you ace
deepened into shady forest. At 80 miles
you enter under the impervious umbrsge
of tronio forest, which grows darker
and taller, and presently impsnetrsble,
and for 30 miles you arc among the mar
wells Of vegetable life; then you emerge
among the aoacius again, and 10 miles
frcm Lake Albert Edward thsy disappear
altogether, and you see nought but grass,
decreasing In height, losing sucoulenoy,
feeble and soant, until you are on the
saline mud of the shore of the upper
lake. hope now that you perceive that
/ am only suggesting. I by no means
assert anything except what we saw and
know from observation. If the south
end of Lake Albert is ono degree 10
minutes, north latitude now, in 1864,
when Sir Samuel Baker discovered it, the
south end was in north latitude one de-
gree seven minutes, in the natal year Of
his royal highness the Prince of Wales
1t was at north latitude ene degree four
minutes 80 seconds. Five years after
Charles l. began to reign the south end was
in north latitude 40 minutes. Daring the
riege Of Troy the two lakes were one,
and the south end of the great lake was
one degree 10 minutes south latitude,
and II these two lakes wear away their
obstructions as they have been doing, in
the year 2l5D there will be no Lake
Albert Edward, and in the year 2040 the
Lake Albert will have vanished, and the
Semlikl Valley will have extended its
length to two degrees north, and the Sem
liki river will have united the Victoria
Nile to form the Bahr el Abiad, or White
Nile.
THE MOUNTAINS OF THE NOON.
Do you know that / hesitated to men
tion the discovery of the Mornteius of
the Moon as much as you would confess
to have seen the famous sea serpent? I
was quite prepared to hear some one
ready to heap ridioule on the statement,
but have since been able to fortify the
assertion by inspecting the maps OF the
ancient Greeks and Arabs. That they
were not explored long ago is dus solely
to the vagaries of individual cartog-
raphers. Why. as long ago as Homer
the Mountains Of the Moon and the foun-
tains of the Nile and the pygmies had
been heard of and located with excellent
judgment, but Hekoimus, HippArchus,
Ptolomy Idrisi, the Portuguese, Dutch
and French photographers. shifted these
interesting features OF African geography
whittier they listed. From 10 degrees
north of the equator they shifted the
Mountains Of tho Moon TO 20 degrees
south, then 10 degrees nearer, then to the
neighborhood Of the line, then with a
flying leap to 10 degrees north of it they
caused the old continent to assume an
exceedingly dissipated appearance in the
10th century, and in the 18th they gave
| II q penitent shore line. but the crime of
crimes was perpetrated in the twenties Of
this century, when D'Auville, French
man, and Murray, q Scotehman, con-
| spired to rob Central Africa OF the three
lakes which had played such part on
past maps, and to draw the Mountains Of
the Moon as extending from the Gulf
of Guinea to the Gulf OF Alden. You
need not wonder that during the last 40
| years You have heard travellers indulging
In incorporate language when the Noun
tains Of the Moon were mentioned.
Listen to this beautiful legend, which
| I obtained while WAS at Cairo, among
many others. 1t is taken from book
with the taking title of 'The Explorers
Desire"
| LEGEND OF ENocH,
"There is u difference OF opinion as to
| the derivation of the word 'Gumr.' Some
say that it ought to be pronounced
Kamar, which means the moon. Hence
| Jebel Gumr-the Mountains of the
Moon-5ut the traveller III Tarshi says
that il was called By that name because
the eye is dazzled by the great bright
ness. This mountain, the Gumr, extends
eastward and westward inio uninhabited
territory on both sides. Iudeed, this
whole chain is uninhabitsd on the SOUTH
ern slope. This chain has Ieaks rising
up into the air, and other peaks lower.
Some have said that certain people have
reached these mountaina and Rseendad
them, and looked over to the other side,
where they saw sea with troubled
waters dark az night (Lske Albert Edward,
of course), this eea being .raversed by q
white stresm bright as day, which enters
the mountains from the north and passes
by the grave of the great Hermes; and
Hermes is the prophet Idrisi, Or Enoch.
''It is said that Enoch there built O
! donna. Some say the people have
ascended the mountain and that one OF
them began to laugh and clap his hands
and throw himself down on the further
side of the mountain. The others wore
afraid of being seized with rhe sane fit
and so came back. 1t is sAid that those
who saw it cav bright SHOWS like white
silver glistening with light. Whoeyer
looked at them became attracted and
stuck to them until they died, and this
science is called human magnetism
"Adam bequeathed the Nile unto Seth,
his son, and it remained In the possession
of these children of prophecy and ol
religion, and they came down to Egypt
Cor Oairo), and it was then called Lul,
so they came and dwelt upon the noun
tains. After them came son called
Kuiaan, then his son Mahaleel, and then
his son Yaoud, and then his son Hemu
and his son Hermes-.that is Idrisi ol
Enoch the prophet. Idrisi il was who
reduced the land TO law and order. He
then went to the land of Abyssinia and
Nubia, and gathered the people together
and extended the distance of the flow oi
the Nile, or reduced II according 60 the
swiftness or sluggishness of the stream
II il said that in the days of Am Kaam
one Of the kings of Egypt, Idrisi wa,
taken up to heaven, and he prophesed
the coming OF the food, SO no remained
on the other Side of the equator and
there built q palace on the slopes oi
Mount Gpmr. He built it OF copper
and made So statues of copper, the
waters of the Nile flowing ou through
tie mouths of these statues, aud then
flowing into great lake, aud thence to
Egypt.
"Idyar el Wsdi says the length of the
Nile is two months journey through Mos
lem territory and four months journey
In uninhsbited country; that Its source
is from Mount Gumr beyond the equator