"But, whether the Congo be the outlet of the Niger or not, it certainly offers the best opening for exploring the interior of Africa of any scheme that has ever yet been attempted; and the ease and safety with which it might be conducted, needs no comment. However, if the Niger _has_ a sensible outlet, I have no doubt of its proving the Congo, knowing all the rivers between Cape Palmas and Cape Lopes to be inadequate to the purpose; nor need the immense course of such a river surprise us, when we know that the river St. Lawrence, contemptible in size when compared with the Congo, encompasses the whole of North America, issuing through a chain of lakes. But instead of seven or eight lakes, the Congo may be supposed to pass through seventeen or eighteen; which will solve any difficulty as to the floods of the Niger not immediately affecting the Congo. I believe that our information of the Niger losing itself in the Desert rests wholly upon the authority of the Romans, a people whose pursuits never led them to trace the course of rivers with a view to traffic or civilization. If we may credit the accounts of travellers in crossing the deserts, we find that, where-ever they get water for refreshment, there are invariably verdure and palm trees; and these spots in the desert of Lybia were termed by the ancients Oases, or Islands. Now, if such small springs could produce such permanent effects, we may reasonably suppose, that the immense stream of the Niger increased to three times the size from where Mr. Park left it, would long before this have made the desert as green as any water meadow and found its way gradually to the ocean, or inundated the whole country."