ON AFRICA. 439 that city. I can also assert, from incontestible testimony, that Tombut, or Timbactoo, is ' not three hundred miles from the Nile El Abeed, but only about twelve English miles from that stream, the latter being south of the town.

Respecting the following passage in the above quoted Journal of Science and the Arts, p. 27.

" This river contains the fierce animals called Tzemsah, which devour men,* I shall only observe, that Tzemsah is the word in Arabic which denominates the crocodile. Farther on, in the same page, we have the words, — " We must suppose that the Joliba makes at this spot a strange winding, which gives to the inhabitants of Marocco the opinion they express."

This supposed winding is actually asserted to exist, and is denominated by the Arabs*" El Kose Nile i. e. the arch or curve of the Nile, and is situated between the cities of Timbuctoo and Jinnie.

I should here adduce some further testimony respecting the course of the Nile El Abeed ; but as the quotation from Aly Bey in the above Journal of Sciences and the Arts, page 27 1.

asserts it to be towards the east, and again, in page Tl, declares it to be towards the west, such incoherence, I presume, requires no confutation. I consider that it originates from Moorish inaccuracy.

Vide Jackson's enlarged Account of Marocco, &c# p. 297.

« Idem, note, p. 305.

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