The Nile 



through some of the finest scenery I have come 

 across in Africa, now rushing down a narrow 

 gorge, a white seething mass of foam and bubbles, 

 now Hke a Scotch salmon river in spate, with 

 here and there a long oily pool. 



However, the flag has not yet fallen, so we 

 must pull up and return to the post after this 

 breakaway ! 



The Ripon Falls are somewhat disappointing. 

 One has heard such a lot about their beauty, and 

 the grandeur of the birth of the Nile, so what 

 seems like a dam across the north end of the 

 Napoleon Gulf — part of Lake Victoria Nyanza 

 — with about an eighteen-foot drop, does not 

 strike one as being over-exciting. It is necessary 

 to be boated across from Jinja on the Usoga 

 shore to the Uganda bank to obtain the finest 

 view of these falls. The great swirl of water 

 takes a sharp bend west on the very brink of the 

 falls, and here one can get quite close down to 

 the water's edge. Half a mile further on one 

 faces the whole thing, which is some three-quarters 

 of a mile across. The roar of the broad volume 

 of the lake pouring through the different channels, 

 combined with the spray and the tumbling and 

 tossing of the waters rushing towards one, is most 

 impressive. 



Big fish, a kind of monster barbel called 

 "Baggara," are to be seen perpetually jumping 

 in their efforts to stem the torrent and reach the 



37 



