THE BLUE NILE. 315 The Blue Nile, whose source the honest, long-slandered Bruce did actually discover, rises near lat. 1 1 ° N. in the mountains of G-odjam, on the south-western frontier of Abyssinia. Thence it flows northward into the great lake of Dembea, or Tzana, near its southern extremity. The lake is shallow and muddy, and the river carries his clear flood through it without mixing. He then flows to the south and south-east, under the name of Tzana, along the borders of the kingdom of Shoa, to between lat. 9° and 10°, whence he curves again to the north and finds his way through the mountains of Eazogl to the plains of Sennaar. His entire length cannot be less than eight hundred miles. The stream is navigable as far as the mountains , about three hundred miles from Khartoum, where it is interrupted by rapids. The Arabic name El-bahr el-Azrek, means rather "black" than "blue," the term azrek being used with reference to objects of a dark, blue-black color ; and besides, it is called black, in contradistinction to the Bahr el-Abiad, the white Nile. The boatmen here also frequently speak of the black river as he, and the white as she. When I asked the reason of this, they replied that it was because the former had a stronger current. It is remarkable that the name " Nile," which is never heard in Egypt, (where the river is simply called el-bahr, " the sea,") should be retained in Ethiopia. There the boatmen speak of " el-bahr el-Nil," which name they also sometimes apply to the Blue Nile. It is therefore easy to understand why the latter river should have been looked upon as the main current of the Nile.

After I had been eight or ten days in Khartoum, I began to think of penetrating further into the interior. My intention, on leaving Cairo, was to push on as far as my time and