84 THE CENTRAL PROVINCE 



suffused with vague delicious reininiscences of toothsome meals ou 

 decayed corpses. As often as not this sleeping, smiling monster is being 

 solemnly gazed at by stiff, prudish egrets of snowy white, or by the round 

 yellow eyes of a whale-headed stork. Crocodiles would appear to exercise 

 a certain fascination over water-birds, who, so far from shunning them, 

 will inspect their sleeping forms basking in the sun, or stand about in 

 groups amid the grim saurians pluming themselves, and even snapping at 

 the flies attracted by the tainted muzzle, offensive still with the carrion 

 on which it has just been feeding. 



The Victoria Nyauza is ap})roximately 270 miles long in its greatest 

 length from north to south, and 225 miles broad from its farthest western 

 to its farthest eastern extension. In either direction it is possible to 

 steam neai'ly 200 miles without sighting land. Nevertheless, its coasts 

 are fringed with many archipelagoes and large islands. These are arranged 

 (especially along the shores of the northern half) in such a way as to 

 create a fairly well-protected channel of an average twenty miles in 

 breadth between the coast of the mainland and the outermost chain of 

 islands. The existence of these islands as breakwaters between tlie broad 

 open lake (wliere waves as big as those in the English Channel can arise) 

 and the coasts of the many lands which border the Victoria Nvanza has 

 been an important fact in facilitating the navigation of the lake by 

 means of canoes and small sailing vessels. Up to the time of writing no 

 vessel (I believe) has ever deliberately crossed the open water of the lake 

 in a direct line from north to south and east to west. Journeys have 

 always been made within sight of the islands or the mainland shore, 

 exce}>t in one or two instances where heavy gales have blown daus out 

 far into the middle of the lake, where they have either foundered or 

 managed to regain smoother waters much damaged. A journey i-ight 

 across this lake from Napoleon Gulf on the north to the Gulf of 

 Bukumbi on the south would be almost equivalent in length to a sea 

 journey from Cork to Liverpool, and weather quite as rough and seas as 

 liigh might be met Avith as in the Irish Channel. 



In the rainy seasons formidable waterspouts occur on the lake, and 

 are often visible from the shore. On the outer islands of the 8ese group, 

 the waves which break on the rocks after a high wind constitute a 

 surf almost as dangerous as that whicli might dash itself against Welsh 

 headlands. The water of the lake is a wonderful deep blue (except 

 in the stagnant Kavirondo Bay). It is absolutely sweet and good to 

 taste, without any of the saline flavour of the two Albert Nyanzas or of 

 Tanganyika. 



