438 Seven Years in the Soudan.

course, can lie between the Welle and the Congo. It is so far west of these rivers that it is useless to search for its source so near the "VVellc. For me the question is simple. You say well that the Congo must be jjushed further toAvards the south, but at present no geographer would Aenture to draw such a deduction, because Ave must either accept all that Stanley has told us, or reject all. That he calculated it too far to the north (ahvays admitting that his astronomical observations of latitude were erroneous) is explained by the circumstance, that during Aoyages on riAxrs it is not always possible to calculate exactly the time employed in following them. The more the Congo is pushed north the more its course is lengthened. The shortest way between two points is a direct line ; if Stanley calculated the course of the river as longer than Avhat Avas actually traA'ersed b} him, it is natural that he must mark the riAer as being farther north ; that is to say, he must more largely develop the arc to the north of the Equator. My friend RaA'enstein Avrites to me from London that he is working at a map of Equatorial Africa, on a scale of one per fivehundred thousand for the Geographical Society.

At present it does not go bejond the IC, but RaAenstein hopes, if he is authorized to do so, to go till the lo". You know that RaA'enstein is the first cartographical authority for Abyssinia hitherto known, and all that he says about that country must interest you. ' Verv little of ray last Avork refers to Abyssinia ; the Italians, it is true, traA'erse the country in all directions, but they produce no scientific material that can be utilized, and they haAe only slightly increased our knowledge of the coast.' What RaAenstein says of the astronomical position is also important. ' It is very necessary that some competent astronomer should go into the ' Tlic important work of Captain Cecclii, Italian Consul-General in Aden, was not yet published. — Ed.