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



able, and that it appeared to them to be so. On the other hand, the rainy 

 season experienced by our travellers on its shores was one of remarkable vio- 

 lence. The sky was perpetually overcast, drenching rains were constantly 

 occurring, evaporation was nil, nothing could be kept dry, and a green mould 

 settled upon almost every article. I cannot see any reason for estimating this 

 rain-fall at less than the tropical average of 8 feet ; and it is scarcely possible 

 to imagine that less than four times the amount of what fell on the lake itself was 

 added to its waters by drainage. We thus obtain a probable access to its contents 

 of no less than 40 feet in altitude during the wet season, yet no alteration of level 

 is found to exist. Again, a drought that would evaporate 40 feet of water during 

 the six dry months of the year would assuredly reduce the land to aridity, 

 but the country is thickly inhabited by peasant negroes, who are scattered 

 widely over its face. I can see no way of explaining these matters from the 

 information before us, except by concluding that our travellers were misin- 

 formed, and that the Lake Tanganyika has an outlet. I should remark that the 

 drought of the desert of Ugogo is in no way incompatible with the fact of heavy 

 rains visiting the lake district. It appears that the rain-bearing wind of these 

 quarters is the east wind, and it is obvious that the moisture of its lower 

 strata must be condensed against the eastern face of the plateau of Ugogo, 

 which faces the sea like a wall, and consequently that the wind which passes 

 over the plateau will be a dry wind. But as it passes on to the west, the 

 upper undrained strata of the air will have time to mix with the lower ones, 

 and to supply fresh material for the formation of rain-clouds. 



Next, as regards the Lake Nyanza. I will pass over the strange fact that 

 the boiling-water observations of Captain Speke gire a constant rise from 

 Unyanyembe to the surface of this lake amounting to no less than 300 feet, be- 

 cause that altitude is within the limits of possible error of observation ; but I am 

 particularly struck with the difficulty of accounting for the escape of the large 

 quantity of water which is said to be poured from the lake into that river, which 

 is commonly accepted as the true White Nile. We hear from M. Brun KoUet 

 of its being crossed by means .of a fallen trunk of a tree, at about 60 miles 

 distance from the point to which he ascended, while the Lake Nyanza is de- 

 scribed as receiving in that one small part of its circumference of which we 

 have any information no less than 180 streams, of which two are considerable 

 rivers. Mr. Findlay has suggested — and I quite concur in his view — that the 

 waters of the lake may, in truth, be the head-waters of the Nile, but by 

 means of some other channel than that of which I have just spoken, and for 

 which there is an abundance of room, and also the existence of a native report, 

 to the westward of M. Brun Rollet's river. Be this as it may, it is quite clear 

 that Captains Burton and Speke have not only brought back a vast amount 

 of solid fact, and given us a sound geographical basis upon which we can fit 

 such native testimony as may reach us, but they have also opened out a most 

 extensive field for future research — where future explorers, and I hope them- 

 selves, may proceed in various directions with the certainty of bringing back 

 a rich harvest of geographical results. 



Mr. H. Danby Seymour, f.r.g.s., was understood to ask whether there 

 were any rivers on the eastern side of the Nyanza Lake to account for the 

 passage of the water ? 



Captain Speke replied that he knew of none ; but that at the northern 

 extremity of the lake the Usoga people talk of one, the Kivira Kiver, the 

 right bank of which is occupied by the Ban people. These people were evi- 

 dently the tribe among whom Mr. F. Werne arrived only a few years since. 

 When communicating with their King Lakono, Werne was assured that the 

 branch of the Nile which he was exploring came from a distance of 300 miles 

 due south of Bari : a point directing him to the exact position in which he, 



