TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 113 



desert me at that spot, again mutinied ; several absconded with arms and ammuni- 

 tion, and joined the trader's party. They, however, with the entire party, were 

 massacred by the Latooka tribe two days after their desertion. 



"A day's journey in advance of that station I met an Arab trader, whose heart 

 I gained by presents. I persuaded him to supply me with porters, and to accompany 

 me to theUnyoro country, where he might commence a trade with King Kamrasi. 

 Thence I intended to strike west in search of the lake. 



" Owing to a succession of difficulties and delays I did not arrive at Kamrasi 's 

 capital, M'rooli, N. lat. 1° 37 ', until the 10th of February, 1864. The trader's party 

 returned to Gondokoro, leaving me with my escort of thirteen men to proceed. After 

 eighteen days' march 1 reached the long wished for lake, about 100 miles west of 

 M'rooli, at Vacovia, in N. lat. 1° 14'. In respect for the memory of our lamented 

 Prince I named it (subject to Her Majesty's permission) the ' Albert Nyanza,' as the 

 second great source of the Nile — second, not in importance, but only in order of dis- 

 covery, to the Victoria Nile-head. The Victoria and the Albert lakes are the indu- 

 bitable parents of the river. 



" The capital of Unyoro (M'rooli) is situated at the junction of the Nile and 

 Kafoor rivers, at an altitude of 3202 feet above the sea-level. I followed the Kafoor 

 to lat 1° 12 ' N., to avoid an impassable morass that runs from north to south ; upon 

 rounding this I continued a direct westerly course to the lake. The route through- 

 out is wooded, interspersed with glades, thinly populated, with no game. My route 

 lay oyer high ground to the north of a swampy valley running west ; the greatest 

 elevation was 3686 feet. The rocks were all gneiss, granite, and masses of iron ore, 

 apparently fused into a conglomerate with rounded quartz pebbles. 



" The Albert Lake is a vast basin lying in an abrupt depression, the cliffs, which 

 I descended by a difficult pass, being 1470 feet above its level. The lake level is 

 2720 feet, being 1341 feet lower than the Nile at M'rooli ; accordingly the drainage 

 of the country tends from east to west. From the high ground above the lake no 

 land is visible to the south and south-west ; but north-west and west is a large 

 range of mountains, rising to about 7000 feet above the lake level, forming the 

 western shore, and running south-west parallel to the course of the lake. Both 

 King Kamrasi and the natives assured me that the lake is known to extend into 

 Kumanika's country to the west of Karagwe, but from that point, in about 1° 30' 

 S. lat., it turns suddenly to the west, in which direction its extent is unknown. In 

 N. lat. 1° 14', where I reached the lake, it is about 60 miles wide, but the width 

 increases southward. The water is deep, sweet, and transparent ; the shores are 

 generally clear and free from reeds, forming a sandy beach. 



" I navigated the lake in a canoe formed of a hollow tree for thirteen days from 

 Vacovia, arriving at Magungo, at the junction of the Nile with the lake, in N. lat. 

 2° 16'. _ The voyage was long, owing to the necessity of coasting, and to the heavy 

 sea, which, with a westerly wind, generally rose at 1 p.m. daily. 



"At the Nile junction the lake had contracted to a width of about 20 miles; 

 the shores were no longer clean, but vast masses of reeds growing in deep water 

 prevented the canoe from landing. Mountains had ceased on the eastern shore, 

 giving place to hills about 500 feet high, which instead of rising abruptly from the 

 lake, like the mountains further south, were five or six miles distant, the ground 

 descending in undulations to the lake. The entrance of the Nile is a broad channel 

 of deep but dead water, bounded on either side by vast banks of reeds. From this 

 point the lake extends to the north-west for about 40 miles, and then turns to the 

 west, contracting gradually ; extent unknown. 



* About 20 miles north of the Nile junction at Magimgo the river issues from the 

 great reservoir, and continues its course to Gondokoro. 



" I went up the Nile in a canoe from the junction ; the natives would proceed no 

 further north, owing to the hostile tribes on the lake shores. About 10 miles from 

 the junction the Nile channel contracted to about 250 yards in width, with little per- 

 ceptible stream, very deep, and banked as usual with high reeds, the country on either 

 side undulating and wooded. The course from the junction up the river being east, 

 at about 20 miles from Magungo, my voyage suddenly terminated ; a stupendous 

 waterfall of about 120 feet perpendicular height stopped all further progress. Above 

 the great fall the river is suddenly confined between rocky hills, and it races through 



1865. 3 



