Note 64 — Chapter XXXV · THE MEETING OF THE WATERS.—THE BÉNUWÉ AND FÁRO.

There was a very serious discrepancy amongst those gentlemen with regard to the fall of the river. Dr. Baikie states, in his Journal, which recently appeared, p. 230, that “the water first showed decided signs of falling about the 3rd of October, and by the 5th the decrease was very perceptible.” If, therefore, the river began to fall at Zhibu on the 3rd of October, the fall would commence at the Tépe, more than two hundred miles higher up along the windings of the river, at least three days before, if we take the current at three miles an hour. My statement, therefore, that the river begins decidedly to fall at the confluence at the very end of September, has been singularly confirmed. But that there is also some truth with regard to the long continuance of the highest level is evident from the conflicting observations of the party. (See Baikie’s Journal, p. 217.) Indeed the sailor-master insisted that the river had fallen long before; and all the people were puzzled about it. From all this I must conclude that my statement with regard to the river, instead of having been considerably modified by the expedition, has been confirmed by their experience in all its principal points. We shall see the same difficulty recur with regard to a maximum level preserved for forty days by the western river, although the time when it begins to fall is entirely different; and as to the latter river, not only I, but the natives also were mistaken with respect to its presumed time of falling. The same is the case with the (river) Shári, and is natural enough, considering the extensive inundations with which the rise of these African rivers is attended. This state of the rivers in the tropical climes is so irregular, that Leo Africanus has made quite the same observation. (L. i. c. 28, “Descrizione dell’ Africa.”)