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SHARI

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 805 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SHARI , an important See also:

river of See also:North-Central See also:Africa, carrying the drainage of a large See also:area into See also:Lake See also:Chad (q.v.). Its See also:head-streams rise on the watersheds between the Lake Chad See also:basin and those of the See also:Nile and See also:Congo. The See also:principal headstream, known variously as the Wahme, Wa, Warn or Worn, rises, in about 6° 30' N., 15° E., in mountainous See also:country forming the See also:divide between the Chad See also:system and the basin of the Sanga affluent of the Congo. The Warn flows See also:east and then north and in about 70 20' N., 180 2o' E. is joined by the Fafa, a considerable stream rising east of the \Vain. The upper course of the Warn is much obstructed by rapids, but from a little above the Fafa confluence it becomes navigable. Below the confluence the river, now known as the See also:Bahr Sara, receives three tributaries from the See also:west. In about 9° 20' N., 18° E., it is joined by the Bamingi, which is formed by the junction of the eastern headstreams of the Shari. The Bamingi, before the exploration of the Warn, was thought to be the true upper course of the Shari. One of its branches, the Kukuru, rises in about 7° N., 21 ° 15' E. Some 90 m. from its source the Bamingi becomes navigable, being 12 ft. deep and flowing with a See also:gentle current. In 8° 42' N. it receives on the west See also:bank the Gribingi, a river rising in about 6° 20' N. It is narrow and tortuous with rocky See also:banks and often broken by rapids, but navigable at high See also:water to 7° N.

It flows in See also:

great See also:part through a See also:forest-clad country. A few See also:miles above its confluence with the Bahr Sara the Bamingi receives on the right See also:hand another large river, the Bangoran, which rises in about 7° 45' N. and 22° E., in a range of hills which separates the countries of See also:Dar Runga and Dar See also:Banda, and, like the Bamingi, flows through open or See also:bush-covered plains with isolated See also:granite ridges. Below the junction of the Bahr Sara and the Bamingi the Shari, as it is now called, becomes a large river, reaching, in places, a width of over 4 M. in the rains; while its valley, bordered by elevated See also:tree-clad banks, contains many temporary lakes and back-See also:waters. Its waters abound with hippopotami and crocodiles, and the country on either See also:side with See also:game of all kinds. In 9° 46' N. it receives the Bakare or Awauk (Aouk) from the east, known in its upper course as the Aukadebbe. This, like the Bahr es Salamat, which enters the Shari in 10° 2' N., traverses., a wide extent of arid country in See also:southern See also:Wadai, and brings no large amount of 'eater to the Shari. In 10° 12' a divergent See also:branch, the Ergig, leaves the See also:main stream, only to rejoin it in II° 30'. In 12° 15' N. and 15° E. the Shari receives on the west bank its largest tributary, the Logone, the upper branches of which rise far to the See also:south between 6° and 70 N. The principal headstreams are the Pende and the Mambere. The Pende rises some 30 m. N. by E. of the source of the Warn. It flows northwards through a fertile valley and in 9° 35' N. and i6° E. is joined by the Mambere, which rises in the hills of See also:Adamawa and flows in a course roughly parallel to the Pende.

Below the junction of the Pende and Mambere the Logone is a broad and deep river. Its system is connected with that of the See also:

Benue (set See also:NIGER) by the Tuburi Swamp, which sends northward a channel joining the Logone in about 1o° 30' N. Below the Logone confluence the Shari, here a See also:noble stream, soon splits up into various arms, forming an alluvial See also:delta, flooded at high water, before entering Lake Chad. From the source of the Warn to the mouth of the river is a distance, following the windings of the stream, of fully 1400 M. The existence of the Shari was made known by Oudney, See also:Denham and See also:Clapperton, the first Europeans to reach Lake Chad (1823). In 1852 Heinrich See also:Barth spent some See also:time in the region of the See also:lower Shari and Logone, and in 1872–1873 Gustav See also:Nachtigal studied their hydrographical system and explored the Gribingi, which he called the Bahr el Ardhe. It was not, however, until the See also:partition of the Chad basin between Great See also:Britain, See also:France and See also:Germany (1885–189o) that the systematic exploration of the Shari and its affluents was undertaken. The most prominent explorers have been Frenchmen. In 1896 Emile Gentil reached the Bamingi and in a small steamer passed down the river to its mouth. The existence of the Bahr Sara had been made known by C. See also:Maistre in 1892, and in 1894 F. J.

Clozel discovered the Warn. In 1900 A. See also:

Bernard demonstrated the identity of these two streams. In 1907 an expedition under See also:Captain E. See also:Lenfant followed the Wam-Bahr Sara from its source to the confluence with the Bamingi and showed it to be the true upper course of the Shari. The same expedition alsodiscovered the Pende tributary of the Logone. Captain Lenfant had previously demonstrated (1903) the connexion between the Benue and Logone. From the mouth of the Shari in Lake Chad there is a current towards the Bahr-el-Ghazal channel at the south-eastern end of that lake. This channel has been supposed to be a dried-up affluent of the lake (see CHAD). Investigations by the See also:French scientists E. F. See also:Gautier and R.

Chudeau led Chudeau to the conclusion that the Shari did not end in Lake Chad, but, by way of the Bahr-el-Ghazal, passed between See also:

Tibesti and Ennedi and ended in some that in the Libyan See also:desert. That the Shari may have reached the Nile is an See also:hypothesis not absolutely rejected. (See See also:Missions an See also:Sahara, tome ii. (See also:Paris, 1909), and for theories as to the Niger-Nile connexion see NIGER.) From the spot where it is intersected by lo' 40' N. to Lake Chad the Shari forms the boundary between the See also:German See also:colony of Cameroon and French Congo. The best route from the Congo to Lake Chad is via the Sanga affluent of the Congo to the station of See also:Carnot, and thence across the See also:watershed to the Pende. See the See also:works of Barth, Nachtigal and other travellers, especially Lenfant's La Decouverte See also:des grandes See also:sources du centre de l'Afrique (Paris, 1909).

End of Article: SHARI

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