Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa; Being a Journal of an Expedition Undertaken Under the Auspices of H. B. M. 's Government, in the Y

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1857 edition. Excerpt: ...corn-fields; the village is inhabited by Kaniiri people. Soon after, the forest became denser than before, climbing plants running up the trees, and hanging down in festoons from the branches. Here it was that I first saw the footprints of the rhinoceros, an animal which is unheard of in all the western parts of Negroland. The people of this part of Logon call the animal "birni," the name usual in Bagirmi, while the real name in the language of the country is "ngirmeV' The Kaniiri call it " kargadan," or " bdrkajan"--the very name mentioned already by El Edrisi. It is greatly feared by the inhabitants, who sometimes encounter these ferocious animals on the narrow footpaths which wind through the thick forests of their country. I had gone on a little in advance, when suddenly I beheld, through the branches of the trees, the splendid sheet of a large river, far larger than that of Log6n. All was silence! and the pellucid surface of the water undisturbed by the slightest breeze; no vestiges of human or animal life were to be seen, with the exception of two riverhorses (called "niye" by the people of Log6n), which, having been basking in the sun on the shore, plunged into the water at our approach. This, then, was the real Shari, that is to say the great river of the K6tok5 Sherif el Edrisi, trad. Jaubert, vol. i. p. 72. (for Shari, as I have said before, means nothing else but river), which, augmented by the smaller but very considerable river of Log6n, forms that large basin which gives to this part of Negroland its characteristic feature. The river at this spot runs from S. 30 W. to N. 30 E., but its general course is rather winding, coming further upwards from the south, and beyond forming a...