Aug. 8, 1872] 



NATURE 



32 primary sources from calf to uaist deep, and requiring 

 from :o minutes to an hour and a quarter to cross stream 

 and sponge ; this would give about one source to every 

 two miles. A Suaheli friend, in passing along part of the 

 Lake Bangweolo durirg six days, counted 23 from thigh 

 to waist deep. This lake is on the watershed, for the 

 \illage which I observed on its north-west shore was a few 

 seconds into 11° south, and its southern shores and springs 

 and rivulets are certainly in 12° south. I tried to cross it 

 in order to measure the breadth accurately. The first 

 stage to an inhabited island was about 24 miles. From 

 the highest point here the tops of the trees, evidently 

 lifted by the mirage, could be seen on the second stage and 

 the third stage ; the mainland was said to be as far as 

 this beyond it. But my canoe men had stolen the canoe, 

 and got a hint that the real owners were in pursuit, and 

 got into a flurry to return heme. ' They would come 

 back forme in a few days truly,' but I had only my cover- 

 let left to hire another craft, if they should leave me in 

 this wide expanse of water, and being 4,000 feet above 

 the sea, it was very cold, so I returned. The length of 

 this lake is, at a very moderate estimate, 150 miles. It 

 gives forth a large body of water in the Luapula ; yet lakes 

 are in no sense sources, for no large river begins in a lake, 

 but this and others serve an important purpose in the 

 phenomena of the Nile. It is one large lake, and unlike 

 the Okara, which, according to Suaheli, who travelled long 

 in cur company, is three or four lakes run into one huge 

 \'ictoria Nyanza, gives out a large river which, on depait- 

 ing out of Mocro, is still larger. These men had spent 

 many years east of Okara, and could scarcely be mistaken 

 in saying that of the three or four lakes there only one. the 

 Okara, gives out its waters to the north. The ' White 

 Nile' of Spcke, less by a full half than the Shire out of 

 Nyassa (for it is only 80 or 90 yards broad), can scarcely 

 lie named in comparison w-ith the central or Webb's Lua- 

 Ir.ba, of frcm 2,000 to 6.0CO yards, in relation to the 

 phenomena of the Nile. The structure and economy of 

 the watershed answer very much the same end as the 

 great lacustrine rivers, but I cannot at present copy a 

 lest despatch which explained that. The mountains 

 on the watershed are probably what Ptolemy, for rea- 

 sons now unknown, called the Mountains of the INIoon. 

 From their bases I found that the springs of the Nile do 

 unquestionably aiise. This is just what Ptolemy put down, 

 and is true geography. We must accept the fountains, 

 and nobody but Philistines will reject the mountains, 

 though we cannot conjecture the reason for the name. 

 Mounts Keniaand Kilmanjaro are said to be snow-capped, 

 but they are so far from the sources and send no water to 

 any part of the Nile, they could never have been meant 

 by the correct ancient explorers, from whom Ptolemy and 

 his predecessors gleaned their true geography, so different 

 from the trash that passes current in modern times. Be- 

 fore leaving the subject of the watershed, I may add that 

 I know about 6co miles of it. but am not yet satisfied, for, 

 unfortunately, the seventh hundred is the most interesting 

 of the whole. 1 have a very strong impression that in the 

 last hundred miles the fountains of the Nile mentioned to 

 Herodotus by the Secretary of Minerva in the city of Sais 

 do arise, not like all the rest, from oozing earthen sponges, 

 but from an earthen mound, and half the water flows 

 northward to Egypt, the other half south to Inner Ethiopia. 

 These fountains, at no great distance off, become large 

 rivers, though at the mound they are not more than ten 

 miles apart. That is, one fountain rising on the north- 

 east of the mourd becomes Bartle Frere's Lualaba, and it 

 flows into one of the lakes proper, Kamolondo, of the cen- 

 tral line of drainage ; Webb's Lualaba, the second foun- 

 tain rising on the north-west, becomes fSir Paraffin) 

 Young's Lualaba, which, passing through Lake Lincoln 

 and becoming Loeki or Lomame, and joining the central 

 line too, goes north to Egypt. The third fountain on the 

 south-west, Palmerston's, becomes the Liambia or L^pper 



Zambesi ; while the fourth, Oswell's, fountain becomes 

 the Kafue, and falls into Zambesi in Inner Ethiopia. 

 More time has been spent in the exploration than I ever 

 anticipated.'' 



He then sums up the results of his work as follows :— 

 " The Geographical results of four arduous trips in dif- 

 ferent directions in the Manyema country are bneflyas 

 follows :— The great river, Webb's Lualaba, in the centre 

 of the Nile valley, makes a great bend to the west, soon 

 after leaving Lake Moero, of at least iSo miles; then 

 turning to the north for some distance, it makes another 

 large sweep west of about 120 miles, in the course of 

 which about 30 miles of southing are made ; it then draws 

 round to north-east, receives the Lomame, or Loeki, a 

 large river which flows through Lake Lincoln. After the 

 union a large lake is formed, with many inhabited islands 

 in it, but this has still to be explored. It is the fourth 

 large lake in the central line of drainage, and cannot be 

 Lake Albert ; for, assuming Speke's longitude of Ujiji to 

 be pretty correct, and my reckoning not enormously 

 wrong, the great central lacustrine river is about 5^ west 

 of Upper and Lower Tanganyika. In my attempts to 

 penetrate further and further I had but little hope of ulti- 

 mate success, for the great amount of westing led to a 

 continual eflort to suspend the judgment, lest, after all, I 

 might be exploring the Congo instead of the Nile, and it 

 was only after the two great western drains fell Into the 

 central main, and left but the two great lacustrine rivers 

 of Ptolemv, that I felt pretty sure of being on the right 

 track. The great bends west probably form one side of 

 the rivers above that geographical loop, the other side 

 Upper Tanganyika and the" Lake River Albert. A water- 

 fall is rcporled to exist between Tang.inyika and Albert 

 Nyanza, but I could not go to it ; nor have I seen the 

 connecting link between the two— the upper side of the 

 loop— though I believe it exists." 



His despatches conclude with the following account of 

 his future intentions :— " Geographers will be interested 

 to know^ the plan I propose to follow. I shall at present 

 avoid Ujiji, and go about south-west from this to Fipa, 

 which is east of and near the south end of Tanganyika ; 

 then round the same south end, only touching it .again at 

 Pambette, thence resuming the south-west course to cross 

 the Chambeze and proceed along the southern shores of 

 Lake Bangweolo, which being in latitude 12° south, the 

 course will be due west to the ancient fountains of Hero- 

 dotus. From them it is about ten days north to Katanga, 

 the copper mines of which have been worked for ages. 

 The malachite ore is described as so abundant, it can 

 only be mentioned by the coalheavers' phrase, ' practically 

 inexhaustible.' About ten days north-cast of Katanga 

 very extensive underground rock excavations desci-ve at- 

 tention as very ancient, the natives ascribing their forma- 

 tion to the Deity alone. They are remarkable for all 

 having water laid on in running streams, and the in- 

 habitants of large districts can all take refuge m them 

 in case of invasion. Returning from them to Katanga, 

 12 days N.N.W. take to the southern end of Lake 

 Lincoln. I wish to go down through it to the Lomame, 

 and into Webb's Lualaba and home. I was mistaken 

 in the information that a waterfall existed between Tan- 

 ganyika and Albert Nyanza. Tanganyika is of no in- 

 terest, except in a very remote degree in connection 

 with the sources of the Nile. But what if I am mis- 

 taken, too, about the ancient fountain? Then we shall 

 see ! I know the rivers they are said to form— two 

 north and two south — and in battling down the central 

 line of drainage, the enoimous amount of westing it 

 made caused me at times to feel as if running my head 

 against a stone v.-all. It might after all be the Congo, 

 and who would care to run the risk of being put into 

 a cannibal pot and be converted into black man for 

 anything less than the grand old Nile? But when I 

 found that Lvalaba forsook its westing, and received 



