354 EXPLORATIONS IN EASTERN AFRICA. [June 13, 1859. 



Mr. Macqueen, f.r.g.s., said he rose with great reluctance to express an 

 opinion contrary to the views propounded by (Japtain Speke as to the sources 

 of the Nile. He did so with more hesitation, because he had listened with the 

 greatest pleasure to the Papers which had been read, and which he considered, 

 in other respects, to be most interesting and valuable. He had really felt 

 much edified by the documents read by both gentlemen, and he hoped they 

 would not feel offended with him if he differed with them as to that lake being 

 the source of the Nile. Mr. Macqueen then, interrogating Captain Speke, 

 wished to know whether the vegetation on the south of the Nyanza was 

 Tropical or not ? 



Captain Speke, in answer, asked Mr. Macqueen to specify what he meant by 

 the difference of vegetation ? — We are now engaged within the Tropics. There 

 are palm-trees, acacias, and forest-trees — the forest ones are tall and slender, 

 and are well branched on their upper extremities, like young oaks or elms. 

 There are also large lays of tall grass, of a very rank order ; but at the time I 

 was travelling there it was the dry season, and consequently all herbage had 

 dried up, and was otherwise, in most places, burnt. 



Mr. Macqueen had referred specifically to the Paper on that subject previously 

 given to the Society. He concluded by requesting the President to oblige the 

 Society by using his personal influence to obtain accurate accounts of the two 

 Egyptian expeditions ordered by Mahomet Ali, the ruler of Egypt, in 1839-40 

 and 1840-41, to explore the White Nile, conducted by very able officers, in 

 several sailing vessels, and which they on the first voyage effected as far as 

 3° 30' N. lat. and 31*^ E. long. These exploratory voyages were certainly the 

 most important of the kind that had ever been undertaken. The Egyptian 

 Government would no doubt readily give them through the influence of our 

 Foreign-Office and our Consul in Egypt. Care, however, must be taken that 

 the whole are carefully and correctly copied from the originals, and not from 

 mutilated and garbled documents that may have been made. 



The President said he was well aware of the importance of having 

 authentic information on the subject, and he would give his best attention to 

 the point. He then called upon Colonel Sykes, who was the Chairaian of the 

 Court of Directors when this expedition was sent out, to make a few remarks. 



CoL. Sykes, v.p.r.g.s., said that he was scarcely prepared to respond to the 

 noble President's call, as he had already commented upon the discoveries 

 of Captains Burton and Speke at the last meeting of the Society, and had 

 little to add. He might say, however, that the views enunciated by Capts. 

 Burton and Speke are those which he had ventured to put forward some 

 years ago, in a Paper on Zanzibar, published by the Society, as likely to 

 result from an inquiry as to the sources of the Nile. It seemed quite natural 

 that the Nile should issue from the Nyanza Lake, and that the lake itself 

 should be supplied from the chain of mountains which runs parallel to the 

 east coast, through several degrees of latitude ; also that the lake itself 

 might have its outlet to the north. We have analogous cases in our Euro- 

 pean system of rivers. For instance, the Rhone, which has its origin on 

 one ' side of the Furca in Switzerland, runs down into the Lake of Geneva, 

 and out of the Lake of Geneva to the Mediterranean Sea — a precisely 

 similar instance. We have also the Rhine rising on the other side of the 

 Furca, and running into Lake Constance, and thence into the North Sea. 

 The Ticino flows from the Lago Maggiore down to the Po, and the Adda runs 

 out of the Lake of Como ; but the real sources of the two Italian rivers are 

 not in either of the lakes, but in the water-parting of the Alps, which 

 supplies the water with which the lakes are fed. The Nile and the Nyanza 

 Lake may be in the same category. The elevation of the Nile at the highest 

 point to which it was ascended by the French expedition, and the greater 

 altitude of the lake, strengthen the supposition that the river flows from the 



