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NATURE 
[April 14, 1870 
Dr. Beke, in his solution of the Nile Problem, the great* 
Casai, or Kassabi River, which rises nearer the Atlantic 
side of the continent. 
Of the first of these presumptive sources, the feeders of 
Lake Liemba, it may be said with almost absolute cer- 
tainty that they are tributaries of the Nile, and it seems 
most probable that they are the sources of that river. 
Livingstone has found these “four considerable streams ” 
flowing into Lake Liemba,; a river-like prolongation 
unites Liemba and Tanganyika, these two lakes appear- 
ing thus to be at the same level; then Tanganyika and 
Nyige Chowambe, which is evidently the Albert N’yanza, 
are ‘‘ one water,” and that this last is a reservoir of the 
Nile is undoubted. 
The union of the second possible head stream, the 
Chambeze, with the Nile, is less apparent ; indeed the 
balance of evidence seems to show that it must be the 
head of another great river of Africa, the Congo or Zaire. 
If the Chambeze prove to join the Nile, then the streams 
country west of Tanganyika. This north-westerly turn 
would carry the river quite out of the direction of the Nile 
basin, and the higher side of the continent being to the 
east, the probability‘is that the river would continue to 
curve to the westward. If, however, the Albert Lake 
prove to have a great south-westerly extension, this one 
difficulty is‘overcome. Again, the valley of the Chambeze 
in the plateau where Livingstone crossed it, is no doubt 
one of the greatest hollows in the highland, so that the 
height of the river bed here may be taken at 3,000 feet, 
the lowest level of the limits which Livingstone gives to 
the undulation of the plateau, or only 200 feet above 
Tanganyika. Descending into the “great valley” * to 
Lake Bangweolo from the plateau, the Chambeze must 
have a considerable fall, from Bangweolo to Moero there 
must be a second descent. The Cazembe’s country, which 
extends round to the south of Tanganyika, is described as 
flat, and its rivers are currentless and stagnant. If Moero 
were at a higher level than Tanganyika, would not the 
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to Lake Liemba become mere tributaries, since the course 
of the Chambeze is by far the longer of the two. The Cham- 
beze flows down into the central valley through lake Bang- 
weolo, and then northward through Lake Moero, Living- 
stone describes Lake Moero as beginning twelve miles 
below the position of the town of Lunda, the capital of the 
Cazembe (lat. 8° 40’ S., long, 28° 20’ E.), whose position 
may be laid down with tolerable accuracy from the former 
journeys of the Portuguese travellers. Since Livingstone 
proceeded north from Cazembe’s town along the eastern 
shore of the Moero in his attempt to reach Ujiji in 
1867, the great bulk of this lake must lie to westward of 
the meridian of Lunda, or about 120 miles west of 
Tanganyika. Dr. Livingstone has seen the river at its 
outflow from the lake, and also at the point where it 
emerged from the crack in the mountains of Rua, when, 
according to his own observation, the river turned north- 
north-west to form Ulenge, a third lake or marsh in the 
* Atheneum of February sth, 1870. 
river which leayes it take a course over this flat country 
instead of facing towards and making its way through 
a “crack in the mountains northward?” Seeing that the 
river does force its way through the mountains of Rua 
(which appear to be a continuation of the “ranges of 
tree-covered mountains” which “ flank Lake Moero on 
both sides”) the presumption is that Moero is at a lower 
level than Tanganyika; and if this be the case, the river 
which descends from it through the mountains cannot 
ascend to the level of any one of the Nile lakes to join 
them, but must find some other course. With regard 
to the third advocated source, the Kassabi River, of which 
Dr, Beke affirms it to be his belief that it is the head 
stream of the Nile of Egypt, the difficulties of its join- 
ing the Nile appear to be even greater than the last. 
The upper course only of this river has been explored. 
* It has been objected that Lake Bangweolo does not lie in a yalley, but. on 
the plateau; but Livingstone’s letters could scarcely be clearer on this point, 
since he speaks of ‘‘the great valley enclosed between Usango (the eastern 
plateau) and the Kone range.”’| 
