Niger River

“ Indeed, people at home can have no conception of the natural difficulties under which the administrator, the merchant, and, for that matter, the native also, labour in carrying out their respective tasks and avocations in the deltaic and forest regions of Nigeria. For six months in the year a very large portion of the Central and Eastern Provinces is partially submerged. The Niger overflows its banks, every forest rivulet becomes a river, the creeks and channels spread their waters upon the land, the forest is flooded over an enormous area, and the pathways intersecting it are impassable. ”

“ This was rather an interesting point in the Niger scenery, for here, for the first time since the Rapids of Kienefala, near Bamako, the river gathers a more rapid current. On the whole the Niger current is sluggish, as the fall of the land from the Tembikunda Mountains to the sea is so gradual. But at Tosaye the stream is forced through a narrow defile, and the water, which just before was spread over a breadth of at least two miles, is compressed into a width of 500 to 600 yards. The rush of water is remarkable in comparison to the slow, steady flow to which we had so long been accustomed. ”

“ At no great distance from this place, and within sight of it, all the branches of the Niger meet, and form a beautiful and magnificent sheet of water, at least seven or eight miles in breadth, and it excited the surprise of the Landers, to know what became of so extraordinary a body of water, for at Boossa, the river is no more than a stone's throw across, and its depth is in proportion to its narrowness, but about an hour's walk from thence, it again becomes a noble river, and maintains its width, it was reported, even to Funda. ”

“ It is built in a level plain surrounded on all sides with hills, except on the south, where the plain continues to the bank of the same river, which is wide and deep, and runs to the east. We were obliged to go to it to water our camels, and there we saw many boats, made of great trees, some with negroes paddling in them across the river. The city is strongly walled in with stone laid in clay, like the towns and houses in Suse, only a great deal thicker. ”

“ In many places a man could wade across without much difficulty. Dhebo forms a natural reservoir for the waters of the Niger in a singular manner. When the rains fall in the mountains of Tembikunda and Futajallon, in French Guinea, the Upper Niger naturally rises and the lake fills up. This continues from about June to October. All this time the Middle Niger, which has no tributaries, owing to the dearth of mountains and the proximity of the desert, is getting dry, more especially as rain on that portion of the river is so infinitesimal in quantity as to be of no consequence. ”

“ That human industry will one day level these forests, drain these swamps, and cover this soil with luxuriant harvests, we may confidently anticipate; but many ages must probably elapse before man, in Africa, can achieve such a victory over nature.
The Niger, besides its own ample stream, has a number of tributaries, equal perhaps in magnitude and importance to those of any other river on the globe; with the exception of the united streams of the Mississippi and Missouri. At no great distance above the point where the Delta commences, the Tshadda, nearly equal in magnitude to itself, enters it ”

“ The river flings itself headlong over the entire low-lying region between Biafaraba and Timbuctoo, covering it and swamping it, until a steppe of barren sand becomes one of the most fertile spots in the universe.139 The Niger is to the Sudan what the Nile is to Egypt; but we find there not one delta, as in Egypt, but three. Thus a most complete system of irrigation is formed, and fertility is spread over thousands of square miles. The rise and fall of the waters is as regular as that of the Nile, and an infinitely greater distance is covered. ”

“ By the end of the 18th century British enterprise had almost entirely displaced that of other nations on the Niger coast. But the principal trade of all Europeans was still in slaves. After the abolition of the slave-trade in the 19th century palm oil formed the staple article of commerce, and the various streams which drain the Niger coast near the mouth of the great river became known as the “Oil Rivers.” The opening up of the interior was in the meantime promoted, chiefly by the efforts of British travellers and merchants. ”

“ The river you call Niger—in Soudan, Gulbi, or Gaora; in Burnu, Zad; is a very large river, into which fall more than twelve other rivers. It comes from Tombuctoo, as I am told, runs to the south of Haussa (or Soudan) , in the empire of Burnu; here it takes a more southern direction, and falls (at least I could not find a single man who said to the contrary) , south of Darfoor into the Nile. There is another river coming from Darfoor, which passes by Wadey and Metko, and terminates in a large lake called Fiddri, [118] in a kingdom called by the inhabitants Fiddri ”

“ Whenever I spoke of the Niger, or my anxiety to see it, they asked me if there were no rivers in the country (we say) we inhabit; for the general belief is, as before stated, that we live exclusively in ships on the sea. ”

“ The Nile, Niger and Congo rivers have their origin on the interior slopes of the highlands, and therefore discharge into the Atlantic Ocean, while the Zambezi drainage basin, lying largely on the outer slopes, falls off toward the Indian Ocean. The longest river system is that of the Nile, which rises in the lake region of Equatorial Africa and flows northward through the mountainous divide to the plateau region of eastern Sudan, where it receives an important affluent from the west in the Bahr-el-Ghazal. ”

“ Leo says, that the head of the Niger is within 120 miles of the country of Bornou, and in the Desert of Seu: [171] but these notices must be regarded as extremely vague.
Certain it is, that if the eastern waters of Nigritia do not run into the [lxxx] Nile (of which, in our idea, there does not appear a shadow of probability) they must either be evaporated in lakes, or lost in sands. The lake of Kauga offers itself in a position very convenient for the purpose, and a river taken by Edrisi for the Niger, is actually said to pass near it. ”

“ The great river flowing from west to east, whose crocodiles showed it to be the Nile, must have been the Niger. The ancients knew middle Ethiopia to be a country watered by lakes and streams: Strabo (xvii. 3) tells us that "some suppose that even the Nile-sources are near the extremities of Mauritania." Hence, too, the Nilides, or Lake of Standing Water in Pliny (v. 10) . For the most part they made a great central river traverse the northern continent from west to east, whereas the Arabian geographers of the middle ages, who were followed by the Portuguese, inverted the course. ”

“ Among the great variety of facts concerning the Interior of Africa not before known, or at least not ascertained, which the labours of Park have placed beyond all doubt, the most interesting unquestionably are, those which relate to the existence of the great inland river, the Niger, as a distinct and separate stream, and its course from West to East ”

“ NIGER, a great river of West Africa, inferior only to the Congo and Nile among the rivers of the continent, and the only river in Africa which, by means of its tributary the Benue, affords a waterway uninterrupted by rapids, and available for shallow-draught steamers, to the far interior. ”

“ Climate: desert; mostly hot, dry, dusty; tropical in extreme south Terrain: predominately desert plains and sand dunes; flat to rolling plains in south; hills in north Elevation extremes: lowest point: Niger River 200 m
highest point: Mont Bagzane 2,022 m Natural resources: uranium, coal, iron ore, tin, phosphates, gold, petroleum Land use: arable land: 3.54%
permanent crops: 0.01%
other: 96.45% (2001) Irrigated land: 660 sq km (1998 est.) Natural hazards: recurring droughts Environment - current issues: overgrazing; soil erosion; deforestation; desertification ”

“ It lies on the southern side of the Benue, some 850 m. by river from the sea and at an altitude of 600 ft. Here the width of the stream increases at flood time to 1000 or 1500 yds., and though it narrows at the somewhat dangerous rapids of Rumde Gilla to 150 or 180 yds., it soon expands again. About 50 m. below Yola the Benue receives, on the right bank, the Gongola, which rises in the Bauchi highlands and after a great curve north-east turns southward. It is over 300 m. long, and at flood time is navigable for about half of its course. ”

“ Rise and fall—A tideless stream—Comfort afloat—The uncertain river—Nasaru the Pilot—Altered channels—When aground—Breakdown of machinery and smart repair—Tropical scenery—The crocodiles’ rest—Riverside villages—Where money is ignored—Estimation for old bottles and tins—Harmattan fog—An island trading station—Hazard and skill to maintain a time-table.
The River Niger at Lokoja should not be likened to the fickleness of a woman but to the quick alternating of moods which distinguish that inexplicable and unfathomable sex. ”

“ To take merchandise up to Say by means of the lower branches of the river, is but a utopian dream, which would but result in disaster to those traders involved in the speculation.
Nature has, in fact, laid her interdict on the navigation of a great part of the course of the Niger; but at least the 435 navigable miles above Ansongo, and between it and Timbuktu, added to the 622 between the latter town and Kolikoro, form what may be characterized as a safe mill-stream, well within the French districts. We have not as yet nearly realized all the resources of those districts. ”

“ Towards its middle course the Tuaregs (Berbers) , who occupy both sides below Timbuktu, simply call it Eghirren, that is, "streams," or "channels," a term more specially applicable to the part of the river where it ramifies into countless branches in the low-lying tracts. Except the Arabs, who contemptuously call it Nil-el-Abid, or "Nile of the Slaves," all the other riverain populations designate the Niger by some term having the invariable sense of a large or copious stream. ”

“ Mankind had no criterion by which to judge of the truth.
Since then the Arabian geographer, who had written the most extensively on the subject, had conducted the Niger into the Atlantic, we cannot wonder that the early Portuguese discoverers, who doubtless learnt from the Arabian authors the particulars of African geography, should adopt the same idea; and that they should regard the Senegal river as the Niger ”

“ After the lapse of twelve years, it was ascertained that private steamers and sailing vessels were resorting to the Niger, and that an active trade was springing up in palm-oil, the trees producing which fringe the banks of the river for some hundreds of miles from the sea; and in 1853, a Liverpool merchant, McGregor Laird, who had accompanied the former expedition, fitted out, with the aid of government, the Pleiad steamer for a voyage up the Niger. ”

“ The greatest proportion of European goods is still imported by the northern road; but the natural road by way of the great eastern branch of the so-called Niger will in the course of events be soon opened. The doctor deeply regretted that after the English had opened that noble river to the knowledge of Europe, they allowed it to fall into the hands of the American slave-dealers, who began to inundate Central Africa with American produce, receiving slaves in return. Happily an end has come to this traffic. ”

“ Within the district now in contemplation, flows the river of Senegal, with its valuable gum trade; the Gambia, abounding with innumerable objects of commerce, such as indigo, and a great variety of plants for staining, of peculiar properties, timber, wax, ivory, &c.; the Rio Grande, Rio Noonez, Rio Pongo, &c. all greatly productive, and their borders inhabited by the Jolliffs, the Foollahs, the Susees, the Mandingos, and other inferior nations, and communicating, as is now generally believed, with the river Niger, which introduces us to the interior of this great continent ”

“ For his valuable discoveries Richard Lander received from the Royal Geographical Society its first annual premium of fifty guineas, presented by King William IV.
It may be interesting to note here the following description of the scenery of the lower Niger, translated from a recent work by a Belgian traveller—Adolphe Burdo:—
'It is a grand and beautiful river, as it rolls majestically along, widening at every step, while its banks display all the splendours of the African flora. ”

“ At Ansongo, 430 m. below Timbuktu, the navigable reach of the middle Niger, in all 1057 m., ends. Four huge flint rocks bar the river at Ansongo and effectually prevent further navigation except in very small vessels. From Ansongo to Say, some 250 m., the river flows through several rocky passes, the current attaining greatBussa rapids and lower river. velocity. Throughout this distance the river is a hopeless labyrinth of rocks, islands, reefs and rapids. From Say, where the stream is about 700 yds. in breadth, to Bussa, there is another navigable stretch of water extending 300 m. ”

“ The era of great discoveries had begun a little earlier in the famous journey (1770-1772) of James Bruce through Abyssinia and Sennar, during which he determined the course of the Blue Nile. But it was through the agents of the African Association that knowledge was gained of the Niger regions. The Niger itself was first reached by Mungo Park, who travelled by way of the Gambia, in 1795. Park, on a second journey in 1805, passed Timbuktu and descended the Niger to Bussa, where he lost his life, having just failed to solve the question as to where the river reached the ocean. ”