XX.] THE LUALABA AND THE NILE. 269 



ing beasts of burden came to trade far to the north of the far- August, 

 thest point they had reached. These, no doubt, were the Egyp- 1874. 

 tian traders in the Soudan. 



All the streams seen by them on these journeys flowed to- 

 ward the Lualaba, which, west of Nyangwe, received three large 

 rivers from the northward — the Lilwa, Lindi, and Lowa. This 

 last, which I believe to be the Uelle of Dr. Schweinfurth, was 

 reported to be as large as the Lualaba (the Ugarowwa of the 

 Arabs) at Xyangwe, and to be fed by two ijnportant afiluents, 

 both called Lulu, one from the east, the other from the west. 



The levels I obtained at Nyangwe conclusively proved that the 

 Lualaba could have no connection whatever with the Nile sys- 

 tem, the river at Nyangwe being lower than the Nile at Gon- 

 dokoro, below the point at which it has received all its affluents. 



The volume of water also passing Nyangwe is 123,000 cubic 

 feet per second in the dry season, or more than five times great- 

 er than that of the Nile at Gondokoro, which is 21,500 feet per 

 second. This great stream must be one of the head-waters of 

 the Kongo, for where else could that giant among rivers, second 

 only to the Amazon in its volume, obtain the two million cubic 

 feet of water which it unceasingly pours each second into the 

 Atlantic ? The large affluents from the north would explain 

 the comparatively small rise of the Kongo at the coast; for 

 since its enormous basin extends to both sides of the equator, 

 some portion of it is always under the zone of rains, and there- 

 fore the supply to the main stream is nearly the same at all 

 times, instead of varying, as is the case with tropical rivers 

 whose basins lie completely on one side of the equator. 



After I had remained at'Nyangwd rather more than a fort- 

 night, one of the expeditions that had been looting slaves, goats, 

 and every thing they could lay their hands on to the south of 

 the river, returned, and with it the men who owned canoes. I 

 offered any thing in reason for a few canoes, but they would 

 not part with one even, and my hopes were rapidly falling to 

 zero. But on the ITth of August I heard the sound of fire- 

 arms drawing near, and was told that another party of maraud- 

 ers were returning. This proved, however, to be the advanced 

 guard of Tipo-tipo (Hamed ibn Hamed). He was coming to 

 Nyangwe from his permanent camp about ten marches off, in 



