. In darkest Africa; or, the quest, rescue, and retreat of Emin, governor of Equatoria . e side, the Kile another, the southern coast thelongest side, and the western coast the shortest side. So little were theancients aware of its extent that Pliny pronounced it to be the least ofthe continents, and inferior to Euroi^e. Upon the Nile, therefore, theymeasured the habitable world of Africa, and fixed its limit at thehighest known point to which that river had been ascended. This isassigned about three thousand stadia (three or four hundred miles) * It was devoted to the same uses down to the ti
. In darkest Africa; or, the quest, rescue, and retreat of Emin, governor of Equatoria . e side, the Kile another, the southern coast thelongest side, and the western coast the shortest side. So little were theancients aware of its extent that Pliny pronounced it to be the least ofthe continents, and inferior to Euroi^e. Upon the Nile, therefore, theymeasured the habitable world of Africa, and fixed its limit at thehighest known point to which that river had been ascended. This isassigned about three thousand stadia (three or four hundred miles) * It was devoted to the same uses down to the time of Emin Pasha. THE 3IAP OF OUR SCHOOL-DAYS. 301 i^oyotid Meioe. They seem to have been fully aware of two great riversrising from lakes and called the Astaboras and Astapns, of which tlielatter (White Nile) flows from the lake to the south, is swelled to agreat height by summer rains and forms then almost the main body ofthe Nile. Equal in fame with the Geographical School of Eratosthenes wasthat of Ptolemy. This school displays an increase of actual knowledge , The MAP OF THE NILE BASIN. which was not, however, always accompanied by sounder views respectingundiscovered regions. Ptolemy appears to have been the first whoformed a correct idea of the whole course of the Nile, and assigns to itsfountains a place in the vast range of the Mountains of the Moon. Buthe places his Ethiopia interior much further south beyond the equator,nearly in the latitude of Raptum (Kilwa?). 302 IN DARKEST AFRICA. 1889. The Prior of Neuville les Dames et de Prevessin, whoh^N-i published extracts from Father Lobo, the PortugueseJesuit, launches into a fine dissertation on the Nile, someportions of which are as follows :— The greatest men of antiquity have passionafely enrleavonrerl todiscover the sources of tlie Nile, imagining, after a caner nf conquest,that this discovery was only needed to consummate their lost many people and much time in this search.
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