CENTRAL AFRICA. 



153 



Before it enters the Indian Ocean, between Quili- 

 rnane and Sofala, the river contracts, traverses 

 the Lupata Pass, and from the Shire receives the 

 surplus water of Lake Nyassa. Finally, to the 

 west of Lake Albert, in the Mombuttu country, 

 Schweinfurth has discovered a mysterious river, 

 the Welle, which, rising in the western slope of 

 the Blue Mountains, is 250 metres wide, with 

 considerable volume at no great distance from 

 its source. Where does the Welle discharge its 

 waters ? Schweinfurth is of the opinion that 

 it forms the upper portion of the Shari, which 

 is the principal affluent of Lake Tsad, and, if 

 such is the case, then this river might be of 

 great service to commerce. But it may really 

 be an affluent of the Congo, or the source of 

 the Ogowai, the lower portion of which was 

 recently explored by Compiegne and Marche, 1 

 while its upper portion is as yet entirely un- 

 known. If it proves to be the source of the 

 Ogowai, it must one day facilitate commerce 

 with the vast unexplored region lying between 

 the Gulf of Guinea and the great lakes. 



According to Commander Cameron, commerce 

 and civilization will find in the great rivers the 

 easiest route to the central plateau ; but, unfor- 

 tunately, the African Continent has one pecu- 

 liarity that is seldom found in other quarters of 

 the globe, and which hinders regular navigation. 

 At a very little distance from the coast the land 

 rises abruptly to a great height, and the rivers, 

 instead of wearing away for themselves a bed 

 with gradual slope downward, descend in the 

 form of rapids and falls. These obstacles would 

 have to be overcome by portages, for which 

 tramways might be advantageously substituted. 

 Small steamboats of steel, with light draught of 

 water, might thence carry passengers and mer- 

 chandise into the heart of the continent. It 

 would even be possible, says Cameron, to cross 

 in this way from ocean to ocean, inasmuch as 

 the Zambesi and the Congo both take their rise 

 in the swampy flats of Lake Dilolo, and in the 

 rainy season their sources are united. The whole 

 region then resembles an enormous sponge ; and 

 the water-courses are so numerous that Living- 

 stone counted thirty-two in a distance of one 

 hundred and twelve kilometres. Cameron found 

 ninety-seven water-courses entering Lake Tan- 

 ganyika, many of them very considerable, and 



1 " Voyage dans le Haut-Ogou6, par le Marquis de Com- 

 piegne et A. Marche" in Bulletin de la Societe de Geo- 

 Vraphie, de Paris, 1S"4. Du Chaillu, Walker, and more 

 recently Dr. Lenz, had, like M. de Compiegne, been 

 checked by the cannibal tribes of the interior, at a short 

 distance from the coast. 



themselves made up of a number of affluents. 

 The compacted meshes of this hydrographic net- 

 work have been very aptly compared with the 

 innumerable little blood-vessels that ramify be- 

 neath the epidermis of the human body. So 

 great is the abundance of water that the rivers 

 are navigable almost from their sources, and only 

 a few leagues' length of canal would be required 

 to connect the basin of the Congo with that of 

 the Zambesi. The Portuguese Government has 

 lately authorized the navigation of the last-named 

 stream by steamboats, and the station of Living- 

 stonia has a little steamer, the Ilala, on Lake 

 Nyassa. If the lei, the as yet unexplored branch 

 of the Nile, is not broken by rapids, small, swift 

 steamers can easily pass up from the Mediterra- 

 nean to Lake Albert. Already, in January, 1876, 

 Colonel Long transported in sections to a point 

 above the Duffli rapids a steamer fifteen metres 

 in length, and two iron vessels, and with these 

 Gessi thoroughly explored Lake Albert. Toward 

 the end of July, in the same year, another steamer 

 first made the voyage from Duffli to Magongo, on 

 the Victoria Nile, reaching the frontier of M'tesa's 

 dominions on Victoria Lake. And, as Colonel 

 Gordon, in the spring of 1814, made the journey 

 from Cairo to Gondokoro in six weeks, it may 

 safely be affirmed that even now we can, without 

 any danger, reach the region of the great lakes 

 from Egypt in two months. 



Of overland routes, the one most frequented 

 is that from Bagomoyo to Ujiji, on Lake Tangan- 

 yika. It is regularly traveled by caravans, dis- 

 patched coastward by the Arab traders in the 

 interior. This is the route followed by all ex- 

 plorers starting from Zanguebar. It is the opinion 

 of Cameron that a narrow-gauge railway of very 

 light construction would not cost over 15,000 or 

 20,000 francs per mile, and that before long it 

 would pay interest on the outlay. In the mean 

 time, a very easy route might be opened by way 

 of Lake Nyassa. The steamers at Livingstonia 

 could carry explorers to the northern end of the 

 lake. Thence ascending the little river Rooma, 

 they would soon reach the sources of the Ki- 

 rumbe, which empties into Lake Tanganyika. 

 The distance between these two lakes appears to 

 be not over thirty leagues. From the north end 

 of Lake Tanganyika, by navigating the Ruzizi 

 and Lake Kivo, we reach Lake Albert, only 

 eighty leagues distant from the foot of Tangan- 

 yika. This is plainly the best route for a line of 

 telegraph, which would be almost entirely sub- 

 merged, and so protected from injury by the 

 natives or by wild animals. But the true line of 



