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A TOUR IN MONGOLIA.

nice cream cakes in this way. Milk and meat are their principal articles of food. They also use flour and millet, which they obtain from the Chinese in exchange for the products of their flocks and herds. Their summer clothing is obtained from the Chinese or Russians, in the same way. Their winter-clothing is of sheep-skins, dried with the wool upon them.

The only thing I have heard of their manufacturing is a coarse kind of felt, which they make into mats and coverings for their houses. Even their wooden drinking cups, drinking utensils, &c., are all either Chinese or Russian. We have been told there are a few Mongols in the eastern part of Mongolia who cultivate the soil: the rest are entirely a pastoral people. They are not a wandering people like the Arabs, but live from year to year on the same spot. As they always settle in small communities, near water, they have sufficient pasturage for their cattle without going any great distance from their homes.

They seem as yet to be comparatively free from the proud, the deceitful, and the money-loving spirit, which so strongly marks the Chinaman. It is surprising that they have not been more corrupted by their intercourse with the Chinese, great numbers of whom traverse the country far and near, for the purposes of trade.

Their language is much better adapted for the rapid diffusion of knowledge than that of the Chinese. From east to west, a distance of more than forty-five degrees, from Manchuria to Independent Tartary, the same dialect is spoken, at least so we believe, from information given us by travellers and others. It is possible it may be spoken in Independent Tartary, of whose language and habits I should much like some information. It is probable that the dialect of the southern Mongols, living on the borders of Thibet, India, and Cabul, may differ from the rest; but we have been told that those who have settled in Russia, called the Buriats, still retain the same language and primitive mode of life.

Their written language is, we are told, very easy. Instead of being burdened with so vast a number of symbols as to require a life-time of hard study to acquire it, like the Chinese, they have an alphabet with which they write the spoken language.

In all this vast and interesting country of Mongolia there has not been, and is not, one messenger of Christ. Some years ago, two Missionaries, belonging to the London Missionary Society, resided for some years among the Buriats; but they were compelled to leave, and they returned to England. They translated the whole of the Bible. This will be a valuable help for future Missionaries.

Who is willing to come to this benighted people? China cannot spare one of the few who are labouring in her densely-populated country the number is far too few. Pray that God may put it into the hearts of some to obey this call and come amongst this people. Gladly would we go, but we feel it our duty, for the present, to remain at Chang-kiakeu. Since our Lord has prepared the way for us, and has enabled us to overcome all the obstacles and difficulties that stood in the way of our residing here, we may surely hope that he has some souls here whom he will enlighten and make his own.

Yes! the doors are open, but where are the men to enter in?

THE SOURCES OF THE NILE.

OUR readers are no doubt to some extent aware of the great lakes which have been discovered in equatorial Africa, towards the East Coast, and in which lie the sources of the Nile. It is to this great river that

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THE SOURCES OF THE NILE.

Egypt owes that fertility for which it has been, during centuries, remarkable. But for the Nile it would lose all its productiveness, and become a sandy desert. But every year the river floods, and, overflowing its usual channel, inundates the low country to the right and left, its waters, as they retire, leaving behind them a deposit of rich soil, in which the seed is sown, and from which the harvest springs.

Whence came these annual risings of the river? how were they to be accounted for? for in the summer heat of July and August, when European streams are at their lowest, the Nile was at its height. It came through sandy deserts, but beyond that, from whence did it come? That was the question which for ages excited the curiosity of scientific

men.

The mystery has now been solved. Let us briefly state how, step by step, the discovery has been made.

When our Missionaries, Krapf and Rebmann, commenced operations among the heathen tribes of the East Coast, being in a new land which no European had ever explored, they made journeys into the interior, that they might learn whereabouts they were, and what sort of people they had to do with. During these explorations they discovered two snow mountains, Kilimanjaro and Kenia, and sent us home reports of what they had seen. These accounts, on their publication in the "Church Missionary Intelligencer," by many persons were utterly discredited. Our Missionaries, however, persisted in their statements. They also made mention of reports brought to them by natives of a country in the interior, called Ukambani, concerning great lakes which might be found there.

At length, to solve these questions, an expedition was sent out by the Royal Geographical Society, which, reaching the country of Ukambani, discovered the lake Tanganyika, and, at some distance to the north-east, the southern extremity of a still larger lake. This led to a second expepedition under Captains Speke and Grant. They skirted the western shore of this immense sheet of water, passing through kingdoms and populations previously unknown, such as Kurague and Uganga, and at length, on the north shore of the lake, found the Nile flowing out at Ripon Falls. They learned, however, from reports, that a larger lake than the one they had discovered lay eastward, and that the Nile visited this lake, and replenished itself from this great reservoir before it started on its northward course to reach and to fertilize distant Egypt; but their supplies were exhausted, and they could not go in search of it. This was reserved for Mr. W. S. Baker. His starting-point was not like that of his predecessors, from the East Coast, but from a place called Khartoum, the capital of the Soudan provinces of Egypt, at the junction of the Abyssinian or Blue Nile with the White or true Nile: thus he came from the north towards the lake, instead of from the south. He commenced his journey, accompanied by Mrs. Baker, on December 18th, 1862, and, after incredible hardships and long delays, struck the new lake on March 14th, 1864. There it lay, a "great expanse of water-a boundless sea horizon on the south and south-west, glittering in the noon-day sun; and on the west, at fifty or sixty miles distance, blue mountains rose from the bosom of the lake to a height of about 7000 feet above its level."

THE SOURCES OF THE NILE.

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Entrusting themselves to rude canoes, they steered north, the lake growing narrower as they advanced in that direction, until the width was diminished to some twenty miles. At length it became choked up with reeds, and presented a mass of vegetation, although, when a bamboo was thrust through this, the water beneath was so deep that no bottom could be discovered. The natives were afraid to take our travellers further, as the people who dwelt on the banks of the river after it left the lake were their enemies, and they were afraid they should be killed; but the course of the river could be clearly seen as it left the lake at its north-east corner on its long course to Egypt and the Mediterranean.

Thus these two great lakes are the feeding-places of the Nile; first the Victoria Nyanza, discovered by Speke, 3308 feet above the sea-level; and then the Albert Nyanza, as the second lake is called, 2720 feet above the sea-level. We can now account for the Nile as it flows through Egypt being at its height in mid-summer. When at the spring equinox the sun becomes vertical to these lake regions, it melts the snow which lies on the mountain ranges in the midst of which these waters lie. Thus the lakes rise, and the surplus waters seek an exit by the Nile. But the course of the river is so long that the flood does not reach Egypt until mid-summer.

These discoveries are in many respects interesting. To the friends of Missions they are especially so in one point of view-they open up new and extensive fields for the extension of Christianity. The countries on the shores of these lakes are not without inhabitants: they have their populations. In what state they are we shall describe in another paper.

METLAHKATLAH.

THIS station is in British Columbia. From time to time we have introduced into our pages some notices of it. It is indeed a field which the Lord has blessed. Most rugged and unpromising it was when our first Missionary, Mr. Duncan, reached Fort Simpson, a little to the north of Metlahkatlah, where he made his first essay for the evangelization of the Indians. Wild they were and ungovernable, their original savageness becoming daily worse by contact with ungodly white men, from whose example they learned new vices. Fierce by nature, they were rendered still more so under the influence of ardent spirits, and murders were frequent amongst them. Mr. Duncan had to learn their language. They viewed him with distrust. He had to live it down. As his work began to tell, and some few were converted to Christianity, the others became outrageous, and, on more than one occasion, the Missionary's life was in extreme danger; but God gave him fearlessness, and he persevered. As the Christians increased in number, and he found his work hindered by the temptations which abounded at Fort Simpson, he did what Paul did," he separated the disciples," and formed a new settlement at Metlahkatlah. Here civilization has followed in the footsteps of Christianity. Christianity has gone before

and opened the way, and, under its subduing influence, the character of the people became changed: they detested their old ways, and with docility adopted new ones. Instead of tents, they built loghouses; instead of subsisting entirely on the precarious supplies yielded by hunting and fishing, they cultivated the land, and reaped its produce. A large circular building was erected, where they meet for divine worship on Sundays, to the number of 700 or 800, They join sweetly in singing the praises of the Lord, and love to hear his word. In this spot a great change has been wrought. "He turneth the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into watersprings. And there He maketh the hungry to dwell."

How remarkable this change is, our readers will understand on perusing the following extracts, which we have copied from the Victoria Daily Chronicle" of June 1, 1866

Baptism of eighty-two Tsimshean Indians by the Bishop of Columbia. The Bishop of Columbia returned on Wednesday in H.M.S. "Sparrowhawk," from Metlahkatlah. The practical work of Christianity steadily advances in that interesting settlement, as shown by the order and industrial prosperity of the inhabitants, as well as by their cessation from all heathen habits, and adoption of the moral and religious regulations of a Christian community. Indeed, from all accounts, a Christian village so well conducted would be a rare sight in any land. Assisted by Mr. Duncan and the Rev. A. Doolan, the bishop carefully examined some hundred adult catechumens, and ultimately admitted to baptism sixty. five women. Besides the adults, the bishop baptized, on Whit-Monday, seventeen children of Christian parents, making in all eighty-two.

As the greater part of these had been preparing for this step for several years, and were required to give proof of both knowledge and sincerity, the occasion may be considered to mark a substantial progress in the good work at Metlahkatlah, gladdening the heart and strengthening the hands of the devoted Duncan.

The Rev. A. Doolan is labouring in the same cause amongst the Nishkahs on the Nass river, where, too, amidst much privation, he is beginning to see the dawn of light. Shortly the Rev. F. Gribble, and Mrs. Gribble, will join the work, and Metlahkatlah will be strengthened to send out further agencies of the Gospel amongst the heathen of the isles and coasts around.

The Queen's Birth-day at Metlahhatlah.

It had been usual every year to keep the Queen's birth-day at Metlahkatlah. The presence of a ship of war induced Mr. Duncan to resolve to observe the festive occasion a few days earlier than customary. By the kindness of Captain Porcher, of H.M.S. "Sparrowhawk," he was enabled to do this. At an early hour on the 21st of May a party from the ship decorated the bastion and the principal buildings with a festoon of flags of various nations. The day was perfect, the sun shone bright, and all the beautiful scenery of islands, placid sea and distant mountains, contributed to the delight. Precisely at twelve o'clock a royal salute of twenty-one guns boomed forth from the ship, to the great satisfaction