DOWN THE VICTORIA NILE 137 



The Albert Nyanza lies at a height of two thousand three hun- 

 dred feet above sea level, so that in its first two hundred miles the Nile 

 descends more than one-third of its whole fall. This is done in two 

 long stretches of rapids, one about thirty miles long below the Ripon 

 Falls, and another of the same length above the Murchison Falls. 

 Between and below these rapids it flows level and smooth, midway in 

 its course running through another large body of water. Lake Chi- 

 oga, which, like the other two lakes, forms one of the feeders of the 

 Nile. 



With this necessary explanation, we can go on in our path down 

 the Victoria Nile, the first part of which must be made in a march 

 through the forest to Kakindu, the head of navigation on the Nile; 

 the second part by canoes or motorboats down the stream and across 

 Lake Chioga; the third part again through the forest past the Mur- 

 chison rapids, and then by boat or through the woods along the lower 

 stream to the Albert Lake. 



The forest travel of our first stage, from camp to camp, is a cus- 

 tomary incident in the life of a Central African traveler. He goes 

 "on safari" as the Boer goes "on trek." ''Safari" is a Swahali word, 

 of Arabic origin, meaning an expedition and all its belongings. In it 

 are included the traveler and all his companions and baggage. It 

 embraces his food, tents, rifles, clothing; his cooks, servants, escort 

 and porters, the latter especially, as porters are essential elements of 

 forest travel, in which all the impedimenta of an expedition must be 

 carried on men's heads and shoulders. The British officer, on an 

 official expedition, comes to think of a ten or twenty days "Safari" as 

 we would of a journey to Alaska or Hawaii. 



Instead of making the wearisome journey ourselves, let us follow 

 in the footsteps of a traveler who gives us a graphic and picturesque 

 description of the route. Here is the experience of Winston Churchill, 

 in his forest trip down the stream. After taking a long and lingering 

 look at Ripon Falls he committed himself to the forest depths. The 

 porters had already been long on the road with their burdens and he 

 thus describes the route by which he followed them : 



"The native path struck northeast from the Nile, and led into a 

 hilly and densely wooded region. The elephant grass on each side of 



