The Nile 



This part of the Nile must, unfortunately, be 

 veiled from further description till we meet it 

 again in the neighbourhood of Kakindu, where a 

 curious steamy fog rises from the smooth oily 

 surface — evidence of a greater depth of water 

 and the cessation of rocks and rapids. 



Lake Victoria Nyanza is 3720 feet above the 

 level of the sea, and here we were forty-four 

 miles away at the next navigable point on the 

 Nile — at Kakindu — e7i route for Lake Kioga, at 

 an altitude of 3420 feet, so the drop in this short 

 distance is considerable. 



I take it that this latter lake stands in much 

 the same relation to the Victoria Nile, in the 

 shape of swamps and spills, as the sudd country 

 lower down bears to the White Nile; and that 

 therefore Lakes Kiogfa and Kwania— which 

 adjoin one another and really are a part of one 

 another — make little difference in the level of 

 the Nile between the two points — Kakindu, 

 which we have left behind us, and Mruli, which 

 we are fast approaching. These two lakes, in 

 reality less than lakes and more than mere 

 swamps, are kept going by the excess of water 

 from Lake Victoria more than by their own in- 

 significant rivers running into them from Mount 

 Elgon and the east. 



There is a slight but distinct current set by the 

 Nile from Kakindu to Mruli and onwards, in 

 consequence of the Karuma rapids near Foweira, 



39 



