34 NOETH-EAST AFEICA. 



The Kagera is evidently a very copious stream, which during the rainy season 

 overflows its banks for several miles, in a way that reminded Grant of the Hugli 

 between Calcutta and Chandernagor. When Speke crossed it in January, 1862, 

 that is, at low water, it was only 250 feet wide ; but here it resembled a canal cut 

 through dense masses of reeds, and was too deep for the boatmen to employ their 

 poles. Its current is very rapid, running at least 3| miles an hour and at its 

 mouth forming a large estuary over 430 feet wide, and varying in depth from 80 

 to 130 feet. For several miles from the shore its dark grey stream continues to flow 

 in a separate channel without intermingling with the blue waters of the lake. 



The natives have a great veneration for their river, and one of the titles they 

 give it seems to justify the hypothesis that it is really the main headstream of the 

 Nile. According to Stanley they call it the " mother " of the " Stony Current," 

 that is, of the emissary of Lake Nyanza in Uganda. At its north-west angle the 

 lake is joined by the Kalonga, another copious river rising in the west in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Lake Mwutan-Nzige. Although it has a course of over 120 miles, its 

 volume is certainly inferior to that of the Kagera. 



Lake Yictoria Nyanza. 



The Nyanza, that is " lake " in a pre-eminent sense, known also as the 

 Ukerewe, and now as the Yictoria Nyanza, is the largest lacustrine basin in Africa. 

 According to Stanley's provisional map, which will soon be superseded by the more 

 matured work of Mackay, it is exceeded in superficial area only by one other lake — 

 Superior, in North America.* Both Michigan and Huron are smaller by several 

 thousand square miles ; and Aral itself, although generally designated by the name 

 of " Sea," appears to yield in extent to Nyanza. 



In the depth of its waters also this vast basin rivals the great lacustrine cavities 

 of the world. In the immediate neighbourhood of the east coast, and close to some 

 islands and islets, the sounding line recorded a depth of 590 feet, which may pro- 

 bably be exceeded in the middle of the lake. Should this prove to be the case, 

 Nyanza will take the first place amongst fresh- water basins for the volume of its 

 liquid contents. Its altitude above the sea has been variously estimated by 

 different observers, but 4,000 feet has been provisionally adopted as not far from 

 the truth. 



By Speke, who discovered it in 1858, this great inland sea has been named the 

 Victoria Nyanza, in honour of the Queen of England. But every tribe along its 

 shores gives it a different name, while the Swaheli of Zanzibar know it as the 

 Bahari-ya-Pila, or " Second Sea." Many other names also occur in history which 

 evidently have reference to this sheet of water. The title of Kerewe is taken from 

 Ukerewe, the largest island on the south coast, which is separated from the main- 

 land by the narrow strait of Rugeshi, a mere ditch almost completely choked by 



* Area of the chief lakes of the world :— Superior, 33,500 square miles ; Nyanza, 26,600 ; Aral, 26,300 ; 

 Huron, 24,500; Michigan, 23,600 ; Erie, 11,300. 



