If a river, like a canal, were as broad and valuable at one end as at the other, its source would be a point of as much importance as its mouth; but we have just seen what the source of a river is, and which may be defined as that point from which the most remote particle of its waters proceed. In a populous country like England, where nearly every field has been the subject of a lawsuit, and where every one has been surveyed with the most scrupulous accuracy, the source of the Thames is of course no mystery; yet not one person out of a hundred thousand knows where it is, and for the reason that there is no practical use in the inquiry: all that one cares to know is how far the Thames is navigable; at what point, in short, it ceases to be useful to the community. But if this be the case in a highly civilized country, how wild a project must it appear to search for the source of a river through sands and deserts, and savage and barbarous nations, merely to determine from what particular spot its most distant drop of water proceeds! We might as well inquire, in an army of soldiers, which is the individual whose father or grandfather was born farthest from the capital: a question which some might call exceedingly curious, but which would certainly be very idle, and lead to endless and equally senseless discussion. He who embarks in a useless enterprise is subject to disappointments which no rational being can lament; and, although we have hitherto supported Bruce in all his facts and feelings, in truth and justice we must now admit, that, of the above remark, this enterprising traveller is himself a most striking example; for, after all his trouble and perseverance, there can be no doubt, 1st, that the fountains of Geesh are not the real source of the Nile; and, 2dly, that Bruce was not the first European who visited even them.