Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 65, No. 399, January 1849Various
History
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 65, No. 399, January 1849
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
dream, but for the beads he bears with him." Many of these tribes
are composed of men of gigantic stature. On the 7th January, Mr
Werne, being on shore, would have measured some of the taller
savages, but they objected. He then gave his servants long reeds
and bade them stand beside the natives, thus ascertaining their
average height to be from six to seven Rhenish feet. The Egyptians
and Europeans looked like pigmies beside them. The women were in
proportion with the men. Mr Werne tells of one lady who looked clear
away over his head, although he describes himself as above the
middle height.
At this date, (7th January) the flotilla reached a large lake, or
inlet of the river, near to which a host of elephants grazed, and
a multitude of light-brown antelopes stood still and stared at the
intruders. The sight of the antelopes, which were of a species
called _ariel_, whose flesh is particularly well-flavoured, was
too much for Soliman Kaschef to resist. There was no wind; he gave
orders to cease towing, and went on shore to shoot his supper. The
antelopes retreated when the ships grated against the bank; and as
the rush-jungle was by no means safe, beasts of prey being wont to
hide there to catch the antelopes as they go to water at sunset,
a few soldiers were sent forward to clear the way. Nevertheless,
"on our return from the chase, during which not a single shot
was fired, we lost two _báltaschi_, (carpenters or sappers,) and
all our signals were insufficient to bring them back. They were
Egyptians, steady fellows, and most unlikely to desert; but their
comrades did not trouble themselves to look for them, shrugged their
shoulders, and supposed they had been devoured by the _assad_ or
the _nimr_--the lion or tiger. The word _nimr_ is here improperly
applied, there being no tigers in Africa, but it is the general term
for panthers and leopards." Here, at four-and-twenty degrees of
latitude south of Alexandria, this extraordinary river was nearly
four hundred paces wide. Mr Werne speculates on the origin of this
astonishing water-course, and doubts the possibility that the
springs of the White Stream supply the innumerable lakes and creeks,
and the immense tracts of marsh contiguous to it; that, too, under
an African sun, which acts as a powerful and constant pump upon the
immense liquid surface. When he started on his voyage, the annual
rains had long terminated. What tremendous springs those must be,
that could keep this vast watery territory full and overflowing!
Then the sluggishness of the current is another puzzle. Were the
Nile _one_ stream, Mr Werne observes--referring, of course, to the
White Nile--it must flow faster than it does. And he concludes
it to have tributaries, which, owing to the level nature of the
ground, and to the resistance of the main stream, stagnate to a
certain extent, rising and falling with the river, and contributing
powerfully to its nourishment. But the notion of exploring all
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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