Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/333





THE NIGER BASIN.

HE "Nile of the Blacks," long regarded as a branch of the Egyptian Nile, and also confused with many other "Niles," such as the Senegal and Gambia, has at last vindicated its claim to an independent existence. It is now known to have a separate fountain-head; it has abdicated the title of Nile, but retained that of "River of the "Blacks," or Niger, as the fluvial basin containing the largest Negro population. Apart from its importance in historical geography, this name corresponds to a certain extent with an ethnological classification. Yet this acceptation is justified by no expression in the various languages current along its banks. Towards its middle course the Tuaregs (Berbers), who occupy both sides below Timbuktu, simply call it Eghirren, that is, "streams," or "channels," a term more specially applicable to the part of the river where it ramifies into countless branches in the low-lying tracts. Except the Arabs, who contemptuously call it Nil-el-Abid, or "Nile of the Slaves," all the other riverain populations designate the Niger by some term having the invariable sense of a large or copious stream. Thus in its upper course the main branch is the Joliba (Dhioli-ba, Yuli-ba), the Ba-bá of the Mandingans, that is, the "Great Water," answering to the "Mayo," or "River," in a pre-eminent sense, of the Fulahs. This again corresponds to the Issa or Sai of the Songhais, the Shaderba of the Haussas, the Edu of the Nifas, and to the Kwara (Quara) current along its lower course, and by geographers often applied to the whole river.

The Niger, one of the great rivers of the globe, ranks third in Africa for the length of its course, and second for volume, being in this respect surpassed by the Congo alone. From source to mouth the distance in a straight line is only 1,100 miles, but by water no less than 2,500 miles, this great disparity being due to the fact that the river, flowing at first northwards in the direction of the Mediterranean, penetrates into the Sahara and then sweeps round to the east and south. The basin thus developed cannot be estimated at less than 1,000,000 square miles, including all the regions of the Sahara depending upon it by the slope of the land and direction of the intermittent or dried-up fluvial valleys. The whole of the