336 



GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERY. 



a height of 250 to 800 feet above the surface, and 

 every foot above the water means 6 feet below it, 

 the thickness of the great antarctic sheet may be 

 gauged accordingly. Wherever approached, its 

 face has not, as in the arctic regions, been at the 

 head of a fjord, but is an enormous flat-topped 

 precipice, stretching east and west as far as 

 ships have traced it. This edge forms the great 

 southern barrier. 



Africa. An account was given in the " An- 

 nual Cyclopaedia" for 1892 of a journey by Dr. 

 Oscar fiaumann in Eastern Africa, in the course 

 of which he discovered a salt lake hitherto un- 

 known, called Eiassi, southeast of the Victoria 

 Nyanza. On an expedition later in the year, 

 accounts of which did not appear till 1893, he 

 explored the highest sources of the Kagera, 

 which Speke recognized as the most consider- 

 able tributary of Victoria lake, and therefore the 

 ultimate source of the Nile. He also followed up 

 its most southern tributary. These remote sources 

 are in about 4 south latitude, so that the Nile 

 in its whole course crosses more than 35 degrees 

 of latitude. 



A map is here given of the journey between 

 Victoria and Tanganyika lakes. 



Following are extracts from Dr. Baumann's 

 account of his expedition, dated from Tabora, 

 Nov. 8, 1892 : 



On Aug. 23 I crossed the route of Speke at the 

 village of Kassusura, the present ruler of East Ussui. 

 1 went on through a well-watered, mountainous coun- 

 try, with ridges stretching to the north-northeast, to 



Ujagoma or West Ussui, whose inhabitants have a 

 large mixture of the Warundi, while East Ussui has 

 a population almost purely Wazinka. The chiefs are 

 everywhere Wahima (VVatusi). Sept. 5 we crossed 

 the Kagera, here called the Kuvuvu, and reached 

 Urundi. The people thought I was a descendant of 

 their former race of kings of the Mwesi, the moon, 

 and they greeted us with great enthusiasm, gathering 

 in vast crowds. The route lay farther through grassy 

 steep mountain land to the Akanyaru, which is not a 

 lake, but a river, forming the boundary of Ruanda. 

 The Warundi are accustomed to call every large 

 mass of water " Nyanza," and every lake as the Vic- 

 toria, Albert Edward, Urigi "Tanganyika," which 

 gives rise to errors regarding the lakes. The Mvo- 

 rongo, here called Nyavarongo, is a river flowing into 

 the ,Akanyaru nortliward from my route. I found 

 people in Ruanda who were well acquainted witli the 

 Mfumbiro, the Rusizi river, the Victoria and Albert 

 Edward lakes ; they all declared that there was no 

 lake in all Ruanda reaching the size of the Urigi, 

 and that the Akanyaru was the greatest river of 

 Ruanda. 



Passing southwest and crossing the river a day's 

 journey below its sources, 1 again entered Urundi. 

 Here lives a bandit tribe of the Watusi, with whom I 

 had a bloody fight in the mountains. Sept. 19 we 

 reached the head of the Kagera (Ruvuvu), which has 

 its source in the high wooded ridge forming the 

 watershed between it and the valley of the Rusizi. 

 The Kagera, as the main tributary of Victoria lake, 

 may be regarded as the principal branch of the 

 Nile, and its source as the source of the great 

 river. This place is the burial ground of the kings 

 of the Warundi. They call the mountains Misozi 

 a Mwesi, " Mwesi's Mountains," as the general 

 name of Urundi is "Land of the Mwesi," or " Moon- 

 land." 



MAP SHOWING BAUMANN'S ROUTE. 



