sailed to and from the lake Tchad, and thus held intercourse with the kingdoms of Loggun and Bornou.  It seems certain that the names Tshadda, Shary, and Tchad, are one and the same.  But the identity of the two first as rivers is what we are precluded from all possibility of believing, by the circumstance that the Shary of Loggun and Bornou, which Major Denham saw and sailed upon, was found by him falling into lake Tchad, while the Tshadda of Lander fell into the Niger; consequently they are distinct streams, flowing in opposite directions.  It is very probable indeed that their fountains may be in the same mountain chain, and at no great distance; and even that some of their branches may approach very near, so that merchants may, by an easy portage, convey commodities between them.  Nay, it is not quite impossible that they may be united by some connecting channel, as the Amazons and the Oronooka are; but this seems scarcely probable.

At no great distance above the Tshadda, enters the Coodonia, a smaller river, but which Lander had seen flowing through a very fertile and highly cultivated country.  Considerably higher is the Cubbie, a large stream from the country and city of that name; and higher still the Quarrama, which has passed by Zirmie and Sackatoo.  Between this point and Timbuctoo, we have no means of knowing whether any or what rivers fall into the Niger.  The tributary which passes that city is of no great importance; but at the eastern boundary of Bambarra, Park describes the influx from the south of two great streams, the Maniana and Nimma; and it seems very doubtful if Caillie was not mistaken in supposing the latter to be a mere branch of the Niger.  The higher tributaries, descending from the mountains, swell the stream, without themselves affording any important navigation.—­Edinburgh Review.

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NOTES OF A READER.

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LAURENCEKIRK SNUFF-BOXES.

[Probably one of the most amusing articles in Mr. Macculloch’s bulky Dictionary of Commerce of 1,150 pages, is the following account of the manufacture of the celebrated Laurencekirk snuff-boxes.  It is right, however, to explain, that Mr. Macculloch only mentions these boxes here for the purpose of giving the following details, not to be met with in any other publication.]

These beautiful boxes were first manufactured at the village of Laurencekirk, in Kincardineshire, about forty years since.  The original inventer was a cripple hardly possessed of the power of locomotion.  In place of curtains, his bed (rather a curious workshop) was surrounded with benches and receptacles for tools, in the contrivance and use of which he discovered the utmost ingenuity.  The inventer, instead of taking out a patent, confided his secret to a joiner in the same village, who in a few years amassed a considerable