LK.SSONS IX DRAWING. 



their explorations; ami in Jutu-, 18u7,they setontonanex- 

 io coast of Zanzibar, having roc< 



proceed west- 



. ...lit,' tin' tilli par.ill.-l i.f huuUi latitu.lf, in -i-.ir.-h ,,( nonio of 



r that were said to be in or new tbttfc 



lutitu<l : lontliM latT, in Fi'liruary, 1858, they stood on 



"0 luiloH from the ooMt ; 

 . who said there WM a large 

 .inning northwards out of tin- n</riin-ru uxtrctnit . 



I thoy had roachril tii.' louroe "! tlio Nile. 



.vv.'Y.T, tlu-y WITH not iu u condition to prove, and 



finding thruiHolvea exhausted by illness, fatigue, and privations, 



uiiil harassed liy tho natives, they were compelled to leave the 



u:o their steps to tho coast. On 



tlirir way back to /uiuilnir, Spi-ko left Burton at Kazoh, and 



1 northward*. His solitary journey resulted in the dis- 



! i Victoria Nyonza, and to Spoke belongs the honour 



of In-ill;^ tho first Kiigli.shman whose eyes had rested on the 



.] mso of tho lake which is perhaps the largest, though 



not thi- only lake that helps to swell the waters of tho Nile. 



In 1860-03 Captain Speke, accompanied by a brother officer, 

 Captain Grant, travelled along the northern coast of the hike 

 Victoria Nyonza and countries in its vicinity, and found a large 

 stream, now known as the river Somerset, issuing from the lake 

 at a point situated nearly in the middle of tho north coast, and 

 falling at a short distance from its point of exit from the lake 

 over a broad ledge of rocks, forming a cataract which has been 

 named Kipon Falls. Had tho travellers been able to trace tho 

 Somerset northwards through the whole length of its course, 

 they would have found that it was only a head-stream of the 

 Nile, and not the Nile itself ; and they would have discovered 

 the Albert Nyanza, the lake from which the Nile really issues, 

 about forty miles northward of the point where tho Somerset 

 enters the lake. Satisfied, however, that the sources of tho 

 Nile were discovered, they quitted the course of tho river and 

 proceeded northwards to Gondokoro, where they met Sir Samuel 

 and Lady Baker on their way to the south. 



It was Sir Samuel Baker that ascertained in 1864 that the 

 main stream of the Nile issued from the north of Lake Albert 

 Nyanza, of which ho is the discoverer. Worn out by illness and 

 fatigue, he reached the edge of a precipitous line of cliffs tower- 

 ing above the lake, one bright and beautiful morning, and beheld 

 its waters spreading before him in every direction, with a back- 

 ground of blue mountains in the western distance. " It was 

 impossible," he writes, " to describe the triumph of that moment. 

 Here was the reward for all our labour ; for tho years of tenacity 

 with which we had toiled through Africa. England had won tho 

 sources of the Nile ! " 



With a brief mention of Mr. Petherick (who has resided for 

 some years as consul at Gondokoro, and has explored a consider- 

 able part of the country west of the Nile between Gondokoro 

 and the Albert Nyanza) and Dr. Charles Beke (who has travelled 

 through Abyssinia, and who must bo considered, for the pre.sent 

 at all events, tho chief authority on that country), as an inti- 

 mation to the reader of sources from which he may derive 

 much useful and accurate information on the Nile countries, we 

 closo our historical sketch of the progress of geographical dis- 

 covery from the earliest years to the present date. 



LESSONS IN DRAWING. XIII. 



OUR next subject in these lessons will be the theory and prac- 

 tice of drawing foliage ; by this wo do not mean merely the 

 leafage of trees, but we include all herbs and plants that enrich 

 the ground, and add so materially to the effect of a picture by 

 their variety of form, their colour, and wild luxuriant growth ; 

 all combining to make the meanest subject interesting. It 

 is not in the forest alone that we must look for beauty ; a 

 common without a single tree has its charms ; its uncultivated 

 and undulating surface varied with patches of purple heath, 

 yellow furze, and ferns, its many irregular gravel-pits, over the 

 sides of which grow untrained and uncared-for tho bramble, the 

 wild rose, the honeysuckle, the foxglove, with the broad-leaved 

 dock-plant, will compose a picture in which all lovers of nature 

 must delight. Each season of tho year makes its own demands 

 upon our attention, each brings with it the changes of condi- 

 tion to which the vegetable world is subject, so that the mind 



of the observer mast be fully prepared at all time* to note down 

 the peculiarities which influence the growth of tree* and vege. 

 f all kinds and under all oiroumstanoss. When trees 

 are stripped of their leaves we have the advantage of studying 

 the eoorso of their growth. Trees in winter are not to some 

 such interesting objects as they are when clothed with their 

 rammer foliage, but to the student the/ offer, perhaps, even a 

 stronger claim to his attention, as they present many features 

 which an uninterested eye would pass over as lees worth/ of 

 regard. It is at this season that we have before us the rfrffffn 

 or framework upon which depends the strength and 

 of tho whole ; to understand a tree thoroughly we 

 acquainted with iU anatomy, that is, the "hflraHer and <M TH*- 

 sition of its branches. Trees individually differ as much in thfa 

 respect as they do in their foliage, and therefore wo are equally 

 capable of distinguishing any particular tree in winter as we are 

 in summer. Compare the branches of the oak with those of the 

 poplar, the willow, or the cedar. The disposition of the oak, in 

 a general way, is to send out its branches at right angles with 

 the parent stem from which they spring (Fig. 98) ; the poplar 

 collects its branches closer together, and lifts them upwards 

 parallel with tho main trunk ; the willow droops ; and the cedar 

 spreads out its branches horizontally. In short, each tree has its 

 own marked characteristics in its ramifications, and is worth/ 

 of as much attention and study in winter as when covered with 

 its fresh summer leaves. To draw a tree successfully we must 

 divide our attention between two important considerations. 

 First, the trunk and its branches ; second, the foliage. We 

 repeat, that the first lesson to be received from nature is at the 

 time when the branches are totally bare of leaves, as then we 

 can study to very great advantage the dispositions of the 

 trunk and boughs of every kind of tree separately, which, as we 

 have remarked, may be called the skeleton framework of the 

 tree, and it is evident, therefore, that the disposition of the 

 foliage very materially depends upon the disposition of the 

 branches. Wo must now again recommend our pupils to follow 

 out the first instructions we gave respecting the drawing of a 

 line, by first marking in with a point the place where the tree 

 rises from the ground ; then observe the inclination of the trunk, 

 and place another point at that part of the main trunk from 

 which the first, and in most cases the largest branches start 

 off; then observe the proportion that the remainder of the 

 tree, as a whole, bears to the part already marked in, and with 

 a few additional points determine the general eixe of the tree 

 and the space it has to occupy upon the paper ; then return to 

 the points which are arranged for the commencement of the 

 branches from the trunk, and mark in their courses and extent ; 

 join these points by lines, and lastly go through the same pro- 

 cess with regard to the minor branches. All this is a prepara- 

 tion for the completion of the drawing, and for where it will be 

 necessary to follow out the method still further for the more 

 receding branches; in short, we must allow nothing to pass 

 unnoticed in the arrangement that has the stamp of individu- 

 ality upon it ; after this the dratrin^ will prove to be com- 

 paratively easy. When the places for the trunk, the most pro- 

 minent boughs, and other branches are settled, tho attention will 

 only have to be directed to the form that each sucoeraiv; part 

 presents. We will remind our pupils that there is a good moral 

 maxim which we must follow in arranging the characteristic 

 parts of a tree, as well as in anything else, as it contains a prin- 

 ciple applicable to drawing that should not be disregarded : let 

 each line individually be so placed that it may afford 

 advantage to its neighbour, and not take up tho smallest 

 which does not belong to it, or cause an adjoining line to be 

 pushed out of its proper place, or appear to claim for itself 

 greater consideration than it justly deserves. The next important 

 step towards drawing a tree is the foliage : in this we must be 

 guided principally by the light and shade ; when we look at a 

 tree, tho eye does not rest upon leaves singly, but upon foliage 

 ':/. ' Tho pupil may have remarked if not, the obser- 

 vation we are about to make will induce him to consul 

 that when we look at any object, but at trees especially, the eye 

 first rests upon the part* in light. They are the first to attract 

 the eye, and therefore, with regard to trees, it is the branches M 

 light upon which the eye rests, and it requires an effort to look 

 into the shadows ; it consequently follows that in drawing a 

 tree we must be especially careful to distinguish the lights, and 

 of course this is done by adding the shadows, but the shadows 



