Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/539

Rh N I G E K 497 &amp;lt;lube, &c., the depth is 6 feet, with a breadth of 1300 feet. About 7 or 8 miles farther down the Sotuba rocks mark the end of what may be regarded as the upper Kworra. Even in this section the stream is probably navigable in small boats all the way from the union of the headstreams to Sotuba. From Bammako begins a more rapid deflexion towards the east, and it is not till the Mahel Balevel, a very important tributary, joins in that a more directly northward direction is resumed. For several hundred miles below this confluence the Kworra shows a great tendency to split into different channels, often enclosing extensive tracts of country in their meshes, and turning whole provinces into a perfect labyrinth of creeks, back waters, and lagoons. Kabara, the port of Timbuktu, is situated on one of the secondary branches ; but the main channel, at no great distance, is about a mile across. At times the river rises so that boats can approach the walls of the city proper; and in 1640 an exceptional inundation turned the central and lowest quarter into a lake. The swamps and side-creeks continue to the east of Timbuktu, and, though at Bamba (130 miles) the river is shut in by .steep banks and narrows to 600 or 700 yards, it again spreads out for some distance farther down. At Tahont n eggish (Entrance Kock), however, a great change is observed, the banks beginning to be rocky and the channel definite ; and at Tosaye the width is reduced to not more than 150 yards, and the depth is enor mously increased. At Burrum the valley again widens out to about 3 miles, and tracts of level ground, swamps, or sandy downs skirt the river on both sides. A ledge of rocks runs right across the stream at Tazori ; about 1500 yards below a passage is forced between two masses 30 or 40 feet high ; and at Tiborawen there is a very labyrinth of rapids and divided creeks. In the neighbourhood of Birni the hills close in so as to form a kind of defile, but at Say the Kworra is again a noble stream about 700 yards in breadth, with rocky banks 20 to 30 feet high on the one side and a comparatively flat country on the other. Between Say (Barth s southmost point) and Gompa (FlegeFs northmost) the distance of 60 or 70 miles is practically unknown, and forms the only complete break in the delineation of the river from Bammako. At Gompa lies the mouth of the Gubbi n Gundi, a left hand tributary which brings down the waters of the Mayo (Mao) Kebbi or river of Sokoto, the Mayo Ranco, the Gubbi n Rimi, and other streams from the north-east and south. Between Yauri (100 miles farther down) and Bussa or Bussan (60 miles) the Kworra is often interrupted by rocks and islands, and below Bussa, where Park lost his life, these obstructions increase so that a distance of 10 or 12 miles cannot be passed by canoes, at least in November. The islands are occupied by considerable villages. Just where the direction of the course turns eastward, a curious rock, Mount Ketsa (Kesa or Kisey of Lander), rises in mid channel to a height of 300 feet. At Rabba (130 miles below Bussa) the width of the stream is about 2 miles, and opposite the town lies the low and populous island of Zagozhi. About 60 miles farther down is the mouth of the left hand tributary the Kadina, which passes near the important town of Bida (Crowther, 1857). In 7 50 N. lat. and 6 45 E. long., the Kworra is joined by the Benue or Binue (&quot; Mother of Waters &quot; in the Batta tongue). This magnificent confluent rises in Adamaua a little to the north of Ngaundere (Ngamdere of the Houssas), about 7 10 N. lat. and 13 20 E. long., at a height of between 3000 and 5000 feet above the sea, and in the early part of its course it is separated by a narrow water- j parting from the headstreams of the Logone or Serbewel, which probably flows eastward to Lake Chad. For the first 100 miles of its course it remains a rocky mountain stream, but after the junction (at about 800 feet above the sea) of the Mayo Kebbi (itself probably navigable to Dawa in the Tuburi country, and there possibly forming a bifurcation between the basins of the Niger and Lake Tchad) it takes a western direction and becomes navigable for boats drawing 4 feet of water. For some 40 miles below Ribago (Reborn) the farthest point reached by exploration upward the Benue has an average width of 180 to 200 yards, and flows with a strong steady current, although a broad strip of country on each side is swampy or submerged. Below the junction of the Faro the width increases to 1000 or 1500 yards, and, though it narrows at the somewhat dangerous rapids of Rumde Gilla to 150 or 1 80, it soon expands again. It flows onwards with com paratively unobstructed current through a beautiful country, its valley marked out for the most part by ranges of hills, and its banks diversified with forests, villages, and cultivated tracts. (See Crowther in Proc. Roy. Geog. Soc., 1877; Hutchinson, Ibid., 1880; Flegel in Petermann s Mittk., 1880.) At their confluence the Kworra is about f mile broad and the Benue rather more than a mile. The united stream is like a lake about 2 miles in width, dotted with islands and sandbanks ; and the peninsula at the junction is low, swampy, and intersected by numerous channels. From this point the course of the Niger is well known. As far south as Iddah or Idah, a town on the east bank, it rushes through a deep valley cut between the hills, the sandstone cliffs at some places rising 150 feet high. Between Iddah and Onitsha (destroyed by British gunboats in 1879), 80 miles, the banks are lower and the country flatter, and to the south of Onitsha the whole land is laid under water during the annual floods. From this point, consequently, may be said to begin the great delta of the Niger, which, extending along the coast for about 120 miles, and 140 or 150 miles inland, forms one of the most remarkable of all the swampy regions of Africa. The river soon breaks up into an intricate network of channels, dividing and subdividing, and intercrossing not only with each other but with the branches of other streams that drain the neighbouring- coast, so that it is practically impossible to say where the Niger delta ends and another river system begins. West wards the anastomosis probably extends to the lagoons at Lagos, and eastwards to the Old Calabar or Cross River. Hitherto the channel almost regularly followed is the Rio Nun, a direct continuation of the line of the undivided river. From the sea the only indication of a river mouth is a break in the dark green mangroves which here universally fringe the coast. The crossing of the bar requires considerable care, and at ebb tide the outward current runs 5 J knots per hour. For the first 20 miles (or as far as Sunday Island, the limit of the sea tide in the dry season), dense lines of mangroves 40, 50, or 60 feet in height shut in the channel, so that nothing is visible save a narrow strip of sky overhead ; then palm and other trees begin to appear, and the widening river has regular banks ; and before long little villages and plantations of plantains and sugar-cane show that even in this region of miasma and mud human beings find means to exist. As the Kworra and the Benue have quite different gathering grounds they are not in flood at the same time. The upper Kworra rises in June as the result of the tropical rains, and decreases in December, its breadth at Tnrella expanding from between 2000 and 2500 feet to not less than 1| miles. The middle Kworra, how ever, reaches its maximum near Timbuktu only in January; in February and March it sinks slowly above the narrows of Tinsherifen (Tosaye), and more rapidly below them, the level being kept up by supplies from backwaters and lakes ; and by April there is a decrease of about 5 feet. In August the channel near Timbuktu is again navigable owing to rain in the &quot;Wangara highlands. The Benue reaches its greatest height in August or September, begins to fall XVII. 63