May 9, 1859.] " OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 211 



east longitude. My companion, Captain Burton, unable to proceed farther, 

 remained here ; whilst I, taking just sufficient provisions for a period of six 

 weelvs, made a rapid march due north, to latitude 2^ 30' south ; and there dis- 

 covered the southern extremity of the Nyanza, a Lake, called by the Arabs 

 Ukerewe, a local name for an island on it, to which the merchants go in quest 

 of ivory. The altitude of this Lake is equal to the general plateau (4000 feet), 

 even more than the average height of all the plateau land we traversed. In 

 reverting to the question asked, why I consider the Lake Nyanza to be the great 

 reservoir to the Nile, my answer is this : I find, by observation, that its southern 

 extremity lies in east longitude 33°, and south latitude 2° 30'. By Arab informa- 

 tion, in which I place implicit confidence, I have heard that the waters extend 

 thence, in a northerly direction, certainly from five to six degrees. Notwith- 

 standing they can account for a continuous line of water to this extent, no one 

 ever heard of any limit or boundary to the northern end of the Lake. A 

 respectable Sowahili merchant assured me that, when engaged in traffic some 

 years previously to the northward of the Line and the westward of this lake, 

 he had heard it commonly reported that large vessels frequented the northern 

 extremity of these waters, in which the officers engaged in navigating them 

 used sextants and kept a log, precisely similar to what is found in vessels on 

 the Ocean. Query, Gould this be in allusion to the expedition sent by Maha- 

 mad Ali up the Nile in former years ? Concerning the rains which flood the 

 Nile, the argument is simple, as 1 have said before : a group of mountains over- 

 hang the northern bed of t)ie Tanganyika Lake. The Arabs assure lis that 

 from the north and north-eastern slopes of these hills during the rainy season 

 immense volumes of water pour down in a north-easterly direction, traversing 

 a flat marshy land, intersected by some very large, and many (they say 180) 

 smaller streams. Again, on the western side, we hear from Dr. Krapf, that the 

 snow-clad mountain, Koenia, is drained by rivers on its western slopes in a 

 direction tending to my Lake. 



During the rainy season, which I know, by inspection, commences in that 

 region on the 15th of November, and ends on the 15th of May, the down-pour 

 is pretty continuous. Super-saturation, I should imagine, takes place later on 

 the northern than on the southern side of the aforesaid moon-shaped mountain, 

 systematically in accordance to the ratio of seasonal progression ; but this, in 

 so mean a distance, could not be very great. Suffice it to say, that I saw the 

 Malagarazi river, which emanates from near the axis of these hills, to be in a 

 highly flooded state on the 5th of June. The Nile at Cairo regularly swells on 

 the 18th of June. 



Farther, it would be highly erroneous to suppose that the Nile could have 

 any great fluctuations from any other source than periodical rains. Were the 

 Nile supplied by snow, as some theorists suppose, its perennial volume would 

 ever be the same. Tljere would be no material fluctuations observable in it, 

 in consequence of its constant and near approximation to the path of the sun. 



By these discoveries, the old and erroneous hypothesis of a high latitudinal 

 range of mountains extending across the continent of Africa from east to west, 

 in the vicinity of the Line, and known as the Mountains of the Moon, is there- 

 fore now annihilated. However, it is worthy of remark, that the crescent- 

 shaped mountain, which we visited to the northward of the Tanganyika, 

 lies in the centre of the continent of Africa, immediately due west of the 

 snowy peaks Kilimanjaro and Kcenia, and is west beyond the Unyamuezi, or 

 Country of the Moon. The Wanyamuezi tribe has from time immemorial 

 been addicted to journeyingj^nd at all periods has constantly visited the 

 eastern coast of Africa. It wmild not be beyond legitimate and logical sup- 

 position, to imagine that these hills, lying beyond their Moon Country, should 

 have given rise to the term Mountains of the Moon, and from misunderstand- 

 ing their relative position with the snowy Koenia and Kilimanjaro, should 



