Burton inclined to the opinion that it was an effluent, and connected Tanganyika with the Nile. That idea was disproved by the examination of the Lusize in 1871; but then Livingstone found that the streams ran into it at the south end also, so that it had no connection with Lake Nyanza. No stream, it was well known, issued from its eastern side, towards the Indian Ocean; and Livingstone sought, entirely without success, to find any effluent on its western side. Hence he inclined to the opinion that there must be a subterranean outlet for this immense lake, connecting it with the Lualaba river and series of lakes, which he believed to be the headquarters of the Nile, but which there is now scarcely a doubt are those of the Congo. It is no wonder Livingstone came to this conclusion about a subterranean outlet; and it is still far from improbable that there may be such an outlet among its limestone rocks, notwithstanding Came ron's discovery and Mr. Stanley's ingenious but absurd supposition that Tanganyika is a lake which has not yet got filled up. Livingstone's objection to the notion that this lake has no outlet is, that if such a body of deep water were relieved only by evaporation, the deposit of saline matter in it would long since have made it a salt lake-there being no other instance in the world of a large, deep, fresh-water lake without an outlet, and there is a great deal of saline matter in the country round it. Lake Tchad, indeed, there is reason to believe, has no outlet, and it is fresh water; but then it is not so much a deep-water lake as an immense shallow lagoon, held within bounds by the surface which it exposes to evaporation, and kept fresh by the absorption of the ground, which is a kind of outlet. In the extremely salt Dead Sea, it is worthy of notice that the amount of river-water poured into it is extremely small. But whether a subterranean outlet exists or not, Livingstone detected the part of the coast where there might be a superterranean exit in Tanganyika. Commander Cameron saw that there was a break in the mountains of the western shore where such an outlet was likely to be, and, from such examination as he was able to bestow upon it, came to the conclusion that the Lukuga river was that outlet. Livingstone had

noticed the same break, and had suggested that the Logumba river, which appears to be the same as Cameron's Lukuga, or at least is close to it, was an outlet; and he also opined that there might be some other outlets farther north on the same coast. Unfortunately, Commander Cameron's examination of the Lukuga was not an altogether conclusive one. This part of the coast was between, and some distance from, the great traderoutes to the west, so that the Arabs knew nothing about it or about the river. A local chief declared that his people often travelled for more than a month along its banks until it fell into the Lualaba; but local chiefs appear to say anything on such points. The African traveller cannot always pursue the exact path he wishes, though he may continue in the direction, and Cameron was prevented from descending (or ascending) this river; but he went four or five miles into it, until progress was rendered impossible by dense masses of floating vegetation. There was neither open water nor solid land; but he found in this large river, six hundred yards broad and three fathoms deep, an outward current from the lake of one knot and a half, sufficient to drive his boat well into the edge of the vegetation; and on various points of his journey afterwards, he obtained corroborative evidence that this Lukuga river flows into the Lualaba.

was

So far everything seems quite clear and satisfactory; but Mr. Stanley suddenly appears at this outlet, laboring under the painful burden that something new and extraordinary must be found. to justify his wandering about in Africa for years with unlimited funds. His discovery is, that Lake Tanganyika has not yet been filled up, that it is a young and rising lake, and that Cameron both right and wrong," the Lukuga is not an outlet of the lake, but it is going to be, when Tanganyika has risen up to the height of its great destiny. We must give Mr. Stanley credit for his ingenuity in this matter, and all the more that it will be exceedingly difficult to prove that he is not right in his wonderful supposition. However satisfactorily it may be proved afterwards that Tanganyika has an outlet in the Lukuga, it will still remain open for Mr. Stanley to assert that it had no such outlet up to the

period of his great discovery; and really there is some reason for being thankful that so ingenious a mind should have been relegated to the (comparatively) uninteresting and innocuous region of African geography. It is alarming to contemplate what might have been the results had it been let loose on the more practically important affairs of European or American politics!

But, to look at the matter scientifically, there are many reasons for supposing that Commander Cameron is right in regard to this subject. We should much more readily trust the observations and judgment of a practical and scientific sailor in regard to whether the Lukuga is an affluent or an effluent, than those of a wandering American reporter. The supposition that Lake Tanganyika has not yet filled up to its level, is wholly incompatible with our knowledge of that lake and of the geology of Central Africa. Had its basin been a creation .of posttertiary times, it might possibly (though by no means probably) be now in process of being filled up to the brim. But Tanganyika dates far back in the geological ages-to a period represented not by hundreds of thousands but by millions, and perhaps hundreds of millions, of years. The rainfall upon it is itself enormous. Besides the rainfall, there are the rivers which run into it, and of these Cameron says (Across Africa,' ii. 304), "I found no less than ninety-six rivers, besides torrents and springs, flowing into the portion of the lake which I surveyed." The drainage of an immense rainy area flows into Tanganyika, and the country round it like a huge sponge full of water." Commander Cameron further came to the conclusion that this lake was "fed by springs in its bed in addition to the numerous rivers and torrents." Considering these facts, it is extremely difficult to believe that Tanganyika is a lake in process of being filled up. The enor mous rainfall and flow of streams into it could hardly be arrested to any extent by evaporation under skies so often cloudy, and would serve to fill up the basin in a few centuries. It is hardly credible that such excellent geologists as Livingstone and Burton could have examined the shores of Tanganyika without perceiving traces of its chasm having

66

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been recently formed if such had been the case. Sir Samuel Baker says (Albert Nyanza,' ii. 317) that Central Africa is composed of granitic and sandstone rocks, which.do not appear to have been submerged, or to have undergone any volcanic or aqueous changes, and have been affected only by time "working through countless ages, . . . no geological change having occurred in ages long anterior to man. One of the greatest of geologists, Sir Roderick Murchison, said, in his address to the Royal Geographical Society of the 23d May 1864

the interior mass and central portions of "In former addresses I suggested that Africa, constituting a great plateau, occupied by lakes and marshes, from which the waters escaped by cracks or depressions in the subtending older rocks, had been in that position during an enormously long period. I have recently been enabled, through the apposite discovery of Dr. Kirk, the companion of Livingstone, not only to fortify my conjecture of 1852, but greatly to extend the inferences concerning the long period of time during which the central parts of Africa have remained in their present condition."

One of the chief grounds for this conclusion is the absence of all eruptive rocks which could have been thrown up since the tertiary rocks began to form.

Had Mr. Stanley taken these considerations into account, or had he possessed more knowledge of science, he would probably have never brought forward his fanciful hypothesis. What seems to have misled him was the fact that the volume of water in Tanganyika has been increasing of late years. This had been observed by both Livingstone and Cameron; but they had too much knowledge and judgment to jump to the conclusion that Tanganyika was a lake not yet filled up. The inhabitants on its shores date this increase from after the visits of white men, and ascribe it to these visits. There is also evidence that Tanganyika has been before at a much higher level. In brief, its level alters considerably, and the cause is not far to seek. Subterranean passages (sometimes blocked up by falling pieces of rock) may have something to do with it; but another cause is much more apparent. The vast masses of floating vegetation which there are in this, as in the other Central African lakes, are quite sufficient to choke up the out

*

lets either periodically or for long irregular seasons. Unable, from various circumstances, to trace down the Lukuga river, Commander Cameron moved westward from Tanganyika to Nyangwe, on the Lualaba river, the farthest point which Livingstone had reached in his last great explorations. His desire was to float down this river to the Congo as it is already known to us, and so emerge on the west coast of Africa, but scarcity of means and local difficulties prevented him from carrying out this design. The disappointment was exceedingly great to our traveller; and it is so to his readers also; because, before him, and almost inviting his footsteps, lay the immense unknown regions lying between Nyangwe and the western sea, including the mysterious Lake Sankorra and the great valley of the Congo. There was no help for it; but the interest of the journey which Cameron might have achieved, had circumstances been more favorable, detracts from the interest of that which it remained for him to achieve, and where he had to descend so far to the south as to cross the previous lines of exploration. Nyangwe had been visited before by Livingstone; and from thence Cameron had to strike almost directly south to Lake Kassali, between the 8th and 9th parallels of south latitude. All this was entirely new ground; but, having after this to strike still further south, though now also in a westerly direction, he crossed the line of exploration of Dr. Lacerda in 1798, and of Livingstone's early journey across Africa. Lacerda went up from the east coast as far as Kabebe, a place about S. lat. 8°, and long. 23°, and lying between Cameron's route and the great valley of the Congo and the Lake Sankorra.

Livingstone, again, in his journeys of 1855-56, crossed Cameron's route at Katema about 12° 30' S. lat., and 21° long., and went as far north as Kabango, about nine degrees south of the equator. We also notice that in 1796 Pereira

*Colonel Long says of Lake Ibrahim, “The almost tranquil lake is only relieved of its heavy pressure of water when the vegetable matter decays, is annually loosened, and bearing upon its bosom the Pistia stratiotes, and detached islands of papyrus, rushes down and past Karuma Falls into the Lake Albert, and thence to the north."

reached a point on the twelfth degree of south latitude, and the twenty-fourth of east longitude. Hence, as an explcration, Cameron's journey is not so new as some might think; but still, from Nyangwe it was over almost entirely new ground, though crossed at points by Livingstone's and Lacerda's routes. His laborious determination of positions by astronomical observations has been of immense service to our knowledge of Africa. He has also determined the heights along his route, so as to be able to present in his map a most interesting section of the country, displaying at a glance the elevations from sea to sea. He has exposed the villanies of the slavetrade, still carried on by negroid Portuguese; and he managed so well with the natives as to open, not shut, the way for future travellers. And though the literary excellences of his narrative are not of a very striking character, yet they are charming in their way, the details being very clearly presented, and there being throughout an unobtrusive tinge of humer and almost poetic feeling.

We have now indicated the great explorations which have penetrated and lit up the darkness of the African continent. A very fair general idea has been obtained of what that continent is, of what it is capable of being made, and of the people by whom it is occupied at present. The most important facts which all this discovery has brought to light are the existence in Central Africa of great lakes and great navigable rivers, and innumerable smaller rivers, many of which are also navigable-the existence of a fertile soil and of an elevated region, with, in many parts, a temperate climate. These facts obviously point out the existence of a vast region in Central Africa where, by means of the introduction and judicious employment of the members of the more civilised races of the world, there may be a new field for the development of humanity. As to the people of these regions, much is to be hoped for. It is quite clear, from the accounts of all the great travellers, that the more we get away from the miasmatic swamps of the coast-lands, and from the absolutely ruinous effects of slave-hunting-whether Arab, Portuguese, or Egyptian-the more do we find a half-savage, but also halfcivilised, people, with many fine and at

tractive qualities. The truth seems to lie between Dr. Livingstone's extreme affection for them, and Colonel Long's horror of their naked deformities. It seems clear that in the African (speaking generally) there are qualities of much promise. He has a larger, more exuberant physique than any other of the savage or semi-civilised races. His inconsequence and fancifulness are those of the undeveloped human being, and are not stereotyped in his nature as in that of the ordinary Hindu. If we take his stage of development into account, we find a remarkable amount of commonsense. In this respect he approaches the Chinaman; but he has more affection and sentiment. He has not that hardness of nature which gives such a metallic sound to the Chinese voice, and that square-skulled immobility which prevents the Chinaman, even under the most favorable circumstances, from amalgamating with other races, or departing from the lines of his own stereotyped civilisation. There is good hope that the African may improve vastly under more favorable circumstances than those in which, hitherto, he has been imbedded. The history of that dark continent, so far as known to us, presents an awful retrospect, and one all the more dreadful when we take into account the kindly and affectionate qualities of so many of its primitive people to which Mungo Park, Livingstone, Grant, Schweinfurth, and Cameron have borne witness. It is inexpressibly sad to think of the unnumbered ages through which these poor dark savages have continued, scarcely advancing beyond the elements of art and science and even of language: from within, destroying and devouring one another, willingly offering their throats to the knives of sorcerers, or paving the deep grave-pit of some bloody monarch with the living trembling bodies of a hundred of his young wives: from without, hunted down and destroyed or captured by aid of the weapons of civilisation, until every man's hand is turned against his brother, and terror reigns

over vast regions. The bounty of Nature has provided for them such abundance that they continue to exist despite all the cruel conditions of that existence. But they are arrested at a position, not so much between heaven and earth, as between earth and hell. There is an old touch, a tertiary or pre-tertiary touch about them, affiliating them with the ancient hippopotamus and the crocodile; but there is also a touch of a sensitiveness and of an affection as keen as any to which the more civilised races have attained. This has exposed them to a torture which the crocodile and the hippopotamus do not know; but it has been insufficient to elevate them to a platform of order and happiness. Surely here is a case where the introduction of European civilisation would be most justifiable, and might well repay the cost. But if that is to be done at all, it should be done effectually,-not as in India, to the great loss of the agents of civilisation, and in the fostering of a weak native conceit, in itself incapable of developing or even retaining the benefits which have been conferred upon the country,

not as in America, to the extermination of the aborigines. In the interests of England, the African continent might be made really to correct the balance of the Old World, and enable us to keep in front of such expanding nations as Germany and Russia. Then, perhaps, it might be given us, in the evening of our days, to wander meditatively on the shore of Tanganyika, that mighty Ulleswater of Africa, or of Lake Nyassa, its softer Windermere. It does not seem at all likely at present that England will undertake such a work, but Germany has of late displayed some distinct symptoms of being inclined to do so. But however that may be, it is to Englishmen belongs the glory of having first penetrated into the centre of tropical Africa, and of having achieved there a series of grand individual explorations which has no parallel in the history of the human race.Blackwood's Magazine.

THE critic who aims at the highest triumph of his art, the revelation to the world of unrecognised genius, must often feel a disagreeable qualm. May he not be puffing a charlatan, instead of heralding the advent of a great man? The doubt is still more perplexing when the genius to be proclaimed is his own, and the responsibility correspondingly greater. And hence arises a problem which has cften occurred to me when reading about two eminent men of the last generation. Wordsworth and Haydon were friends. Each sympathised with the aims of the other. Wordsworth wished to reform poetry as Haydon wished to reform painting. Each of them endeavored to breathe a loftier spirit into the devotees of his favorite art. Each of them persevered heroically in spite of the most depressing reception. The enthusiasm which animated Haydon was not less elevated above the ends of a commonplace selfishness than that which animated Wordsworth. If the painter was undeniably vain, the poet pushed vanity to the verge of the sublime. One, however, failed where the other succeeded. Poor Haydon's life-long exertions were not, one may hope, entirely thrown away; but his most cherished ambition came to naught. He produced no work which might entitle the English school to rank amongst the great schools of the world. Wordsworth, on the contrary, breathed new life even into the rich and vigorous growth of English poetry; he set his mark upon a generation; and enjoyed, before he died, the profound homage of the best and purest minds of the succeeding generation.

Haydon, then, made a fatal mistake, whereas Wordsworth's daring was justified by the result. That is clearly a reason for pity in the one case and congratulation in the other. But is it a reason -as it is certainly a common pretextfor pronouncing a different moral judgment upon the two men? Is success to be the sole test of virtue in this as in so many other cases? When a hero burns his ships, scorns the counsels of cool common sense, plucks the flower safety from the nettle danger, and ends by winning an empire in defiance of all calculation,

we are ready with our hosannahs. But, if he fails, should we therefore stone him? If Columbus had met with a little more adverse weather, his courage would not have prevented the failure of his enterprise. Had our Arctic voyagers chanced upon a better route, they might have reached the pole without expending more devotion. The hero is the man who dares to run a risk; who is not deterred, because an element of the radically unknowable enters into his calculations. If he knew more than others he would be a wiser, but not a better, man than his fellows. He would be playing the great game with loaded dice. His insight, not his daring, would deserve our wonder. But he who risks life and fame upon an uncertainty deserves equal credit, for his intrinsic merit is the same, whether the cards turn up for him or against him. Our life is little but a wandering in a trackless desert. We throw out exploring parties in every direction. Ten die of starvation and misery; one hits upon the right path. Too often we praise the man already rewarded by fortune, and attribute his good luck to some mysterious power of intuitive judgment. But, if we were just, we should bestow equal praise and more sympathy upon the luckless ones whose steps led them to the barren places, and whose failures, it may be, served as warning beacons to their more favored successors.

Why not apply this rule to the pioneers of intellectual or artistic progress? Hundreds of men have wasted lives of energetic endeavor in following delusive paths in that great labyrinth of human knowledge, where the clue is so hard to find, and where at every stage so many paths hold out equal promise. We, enlightened by slow experience, or by wider knowledge, can see that these wanderings were predestined to failure. But why not honor equally the high faith which scorned meaner aims, and was unchilled by the indifference of the vulgar? Is devotion to knowledge so common a quality that we can afford to despise it unless it bears fruit in appreciable results? We often laugh at the poor wouldbe philosophers who waste years in trying