elephants. The country on our left was undulating, and consisted of sandy soil, clothed almost exclusively with the kalgo, with its ash-colored leaves and long red pods; but as the river receded the surface became level, and was much overgrown with brushwood. The district was full of buffaloes. We encamped after a march of sixteen miles in the midst of the forest, where kreb was springing up in most luxuriant abundance, affording the richest pasture to the horses, and a cheerful sight to ourselves.

"On proceeding the next morning, we fell in with two men who were pasturing a couple of asses; but although we made signs to them that we were their friends, they would not hear us, and beating their shields, cried out lustily to their companions, who all on a sudden rushed out in every direction from behind the bushes, and in a moment surrounded us. There were from 150 to 200 of them, all tall, slender men, half naked, and each armed with a couple of spears and a ragged shield, which they brandished over their heads with warlike gesticulations. The affair seemed rather serious, but my companion cried out to them that I was a shereef, and a friend of the sheikh El Bakay. All of a sudden they dropped their spears and thronged around me, and requested me to give them my blessing, which I felt it best to do, although it was by no means a pleasant matter to lay my hand on so many uncleanly heads.

"On the whole, it was very fortunate that we met with those people, for without their aid we should scarcely have been able to cross the water which intersected our track. Having received my blessing, and the tumult having quieted down, they conducted us to a place where they declared the water to be fordable. But the boggy ground proved very troublesome. My people were obliged to carry all the luggage, even the heaviest, across the swamp, which was a half mile in breadth, the camels being scarcely able to make their way over unloaded, and I had the misfortune to fall under my horse in the midst of the swamp, and to wet through all my journals. We had the greatest difficulty in extricating my horse, which for some minutes lay as if dead."-Pp. 210, 211.

"On leaving the place I was struck with its castle-like appearance, as well as with the fine crops of corn which surrounded it on all sides, while a rich growth of trees embellished the district to the south. It was a fine morning, and a heavy dew having fallen, the drops of wet dripping down from the corn glistened in the rays of the sun, while the monkey-bread trees

being just in full bloom, the white bell-like flower hanging down from the colossal branches, gave a remarkable relief to the scenery. It was through such a country that our path kept along on a rising ground, when after a march of about fourteen miles we reached the town of Tinge, situated on the summit of a hill.

“The houses in this village have not an elevated tower-like shape like those of Filiyo we had left, nor do they contain an upper story. They have flat roofs. The walls consist of sundried clay, which is formed into regular lumps, like stones, and is placed in uniform layers, with loose clay between. The interior of the dwellings is not altogether comfortless. Some of the apartments are large. One in the dwelling in which we lodged was forty feet long and ten wide. From this we could pass into a court-yard, round which the building extended.

"The inhabitants of this place are Songhay, who have vindicated their liberty, up to the present time, successfully against the restless and steadily advancing Fúlbe. The noblest among them do not disfigure their features by tatooing, though some of them make an incision under the left eye, from the nose toward the cheek-bone, and the common people three separate incisions-three cuts on the temple, three in the middle of the cheek, and three at the lower part of the face; all of them wear clothing, the greater part of them having for their dress an indigo dyed shirt. Their weapons consist almost entirely of spears; swords are very rare; nor are the bow and arrow, which constitute the principal weapon of some of the neighboring tribes, usual among them. The exertions of the natives of these places in defending their independence, are greatly favored by the dissensions which prevail among the Fúlbe, one of their chiefs having, in consequence of his disputes with the sheikh, taken refuge with the pagan Mósi, from whence he makes continual predatory expeditions against the territory of his countrymen. The inhabitants of Tinge, therefore, males as well as females, enjoy their liberty and independence in smoking all day and dancing every evening, when it is not raining, while their less happy brethren of Timbúktu and Jimbálla have been deprived of these amusements by the austere laws of their fanatical oppressors.

"The natives are industrious, both in cultivating the ground and in weaving; and their habits seemed to be favored by Providence as while all the neighboring districts were suffering from famine, in this village corn was plentiful."-Pp. 214-216.

At length, after journeying a month from this place, he struck a branch of the Niger, at Surayamo, a hundred or hundred and fifty miles from Timbúktu, south, and on the stream above that place. That river rising ten degrees south of that city, runs for a degree or two west, then turning to the north-east, maintains that direction, generally, till it reaches Timbúktu, where it wheels to the east, at the distance of near five degrees, turns to the south-east, and pursues that line till it reaches Say, the point where Dr. Barth first crossed it. The region traversed by him from Say to Timbúktu is thus swept on the west, the north, and the east by the river, and is in shape not unlike a negro head, with the face towards the west. The whole of this vast expanse is without mountains, or lofty ranges of hills. Though nowhere for any great extent a dead level, the elevations are slight. Cultivated and inhabited throughout, under the hand of civilization, it might become a garden of fertility and beauty. At Sarayámno he procured a boat, and made the rest of his journey to Timbúktu by the river.

"Having succeeded in hiring a boat which had come from Timbuktu for the exclusive use of my own party, for ten thousand shells, I prepared my baggage, which though greatly reduced from the respectable bulk which it presented when setting out from Kátsena, was still sufficient to inspire me with the hope that I might succeed in securing the friendship of the more influential chiefs of these regions; and in the evening of the last day of August I went on board my small craft. In the morning we began our voyage, and I felt greatly cheered to find myself floating on this river, or backwater, which was to carry me all the way to Timbúktu. The river near Sarayamo forms a fine open sheet, widening to about three hundred yards. Farther on it was greatly obstructed with rank grass, which in places covered the water entirely, so that the boat seemed to glide along a grassy plain. White water-lilies were also in great abundance, and the water plant, which floats on the water, without having its roots fixed in the ground. After a few miles we emerged from this reedy water into the more open branch of Bámbara. Here the eastern bank became free from reed-grass, and a herd of gazelles was seen near the shore; the western bank was adorned with numerous dum-palms, gano

and tamarind trees. A great many herds of cattle were to be seen on the left side of the river, and gave life to the scenery. On the next day, in passing into a wider branch of the river, some large specimens of the alligator tribe afforded proofs of a deeper channel. The whole breadth of the river was not less than six hundred to seven hundred yards, while the depth of the middle was from twelve to eighteen feet. The banks were enlivened with men, horses, and cattle. As we advanced, the shores began to assume more and more the character of a noble river, bounded by strongly-marked banks, clad with fine timber. Further on we observed the first river-horses we had seen in the Niger, carrying their awkward heads out of the water."-Pp.

258-165.

At length he reached Timbúktu, and met not an altogether unfriendly reception, though from the intrigues of chiefs, the jealousy of tribes, and the rancor of the Moslem generally towards one not of their faith, he was exposed to continual annoyances, and often to great danger, and was intercepted in a great degree from gaining the information. respecting the city and country which he desired. After many interviews he succeeded in gaining the confidence of the sheikh El Bakay, who protected him during his stay at Timbúktu, and escorted him on his return, some three hundred miles, to Gogo, at the point below Timbúktu where the river turns from its eastern to its south-eastern course towards Say.

Timbúktu is not an independent capital, but is under a sheikh, who is a dependent of the Tawarek, a powerful tribe, whose seat is at the east. It pays tribute also to the Fúlbe. Its population is but about thirteen thousand, and its commerce not large. It was founded eight hundred years ago, not as the capital of an empire, but as a place of commerce; and during the lapse of that vast period, has been repeatedly conquered and sacked by the tribes south and east, as they successively rose to supreme power. It owes its chief importance now to its being the entrepot of caravans that cross the desert from the north.

After a detention there of eight months, Dr. Barth set out on his return, passing down the left bank of the river to Say, and thence to Kano Kukawa, and Tripoli.

The condition of this part of Negroland, like that which

he had before traversed, is extremely sad. The overthrow of the Moslem power seems an indispensable condition of any essential improvement. That may result, perhaps, from changes in the States on the Mediterranean, or from the establishment of European or civilized colonies on the banks of the Niger. A small body of colonists, armed with modern weapons, and under the conduct of an energetic leader, would, with steamboats enabling them to pass with rapidity from one point to another, easily divest the present chiefs of their power, or compel them to abandon their depredations on one another, and their war on foreigners. And were security assured to the nations, a market opened for their produce, schools established for the education of the young, and the gospel preached to them, a few years would convert them from a savage to a civilized people.

It is exhilarating to know that the long reign of sin and misery which have held undisputed dominion there for four thousand years, is drawing to a close: that a new age is about to dawn on those far-stretching plains, those myriad vales of beauty, which instead of strife, and rage, and slaughter, and despair, are to be scenes of righteousness and peace, and resound only with the utterances of love and gladness, of thanksgiving and adoration.

ART. III-REPLY TO THE MISREPRESENTATIONS, AND EXPOSURE OF THE ERRORS OF J. R. BLAKE.

THE GEOLOGICAL WRITINGS OF D. N. LORD, by Prof. J. R. BLAKE, La Grange College, Tennessee.-An Article in the Southern Presbyterian Review of October, 1860, Columbia, South Carolina.

THE writer's aim in the article of which we have given the title, is not to confute the main considerations which we alleged in the discussions in the Journal on Geology, several years ago, to show that the prevailing theory in respect to the age of the world, the mode in which the strata were formed, etc., is incorrect. Instead of assailing them, and endeavoring