THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 195 



thanked God for having guided and supported us through all 

 dangers to the good end. We were about 1,500 feet above the 

 lake, and I looked down from the steep granite cliff upon those 

 welcome waters upon that vast reservoir which nourished Egypt 

 and brought fertility where all was wilderness upon that great 

 source so long hidden from mankind ; that source of bountv 

 and of blessings to millions of human beings ; and as one of the 

 greatest objects in nature T determined to honor it with a great 

 name. As an imperishable memorial of one loved and mourned 

 by our gracious Queen and deplored by every Englishman, I 

 called the great lake * the Albert N'yanza.' The Victoria and the 

 Albert lakes are the two sources of the Nile. My wife, who hud 

 followed me so devotedly, stood by my side, pale and exhausted 

 a wreck upon the shores of the great Albert Lake that we had 

 so long striven to reach. No European foot had ever trod upon 

 its sand, nor had the eyes of a white man ever scanned its vast 

 expanse of water. We were the first ; and this was the key to 

 the great secret that even Julius Caesar yearned to unravel, but 

 in vain." 



SALT MAKING IN AFRICA. 



THEY painfully descended to the lake shore, assisting one 

 another down the steep cliff, both being so weak from sickness 

 and fatigue that they could scarcely walk. On the beach they 

 found a small village, called Vacovia, the inhabitants of which 

 were fishers, as evidenced by the large amount of crude tackle 

 displayed before every hut. The soil was so impregnated with 

 salt as to unfit it for cultivation, and yet salt itself was most 

 difficult to procure, impossible in a pure state. The process 

 employed by the natives to secure this necessary article, was by 

 placing quantities of the saline mud in vessels and allowing it to 

 drain through perforations in the bottom ; this drainage was sub- 

 mitted to a cleansing process of imperfect distillation, and then 

 boiled. The product, though salt, is very bitter and unpleasant 

 to the taste. In other sections of Africa the means for manu- 

 facturing salt are equally defective. At Latooka, for example, 

 it is made chiefly of goats' dung, which is burned to ashes, these 



