38 NOETH-EAST AFEICA. 



rises in the TJ-Ganda hills near the shores of Nyanza, and which was supposed by 

 Speke to flow from the lake itself. On his map he sketched a third emissary, the 

 Kafu, which after a course of about 120 miles joined the Nile lower down. But 

 such a phenomenon as three rivers flowing from the same lake and meeting again 

 after traversing a hilly region would indeed be remarkable. In point of fact the 

 Kafu, like the Luajerri, rises not in, but near the lake, with which it has no 

 communication. 



Soon after leaving Lake Ibrahim the Nile is described by Chaille-Long as 

 again expanding into a vast morass covered with vegetation, and with a mean 

 depth of scarcely more than 10 or 12 feet. This is the Kioja or Kapeki lagoon, 

 which was discovered by the Italian explorer Piaggia, and a short distance below 

 which the Nile is joined by the navigable river Kafu. Farther on it describes a 

 bend towards the east and north, after which it trends abruptly westwards to its 

 confluence with the great lake Mwûtan-Nzigé, or Albert Nyanza. Throughout 

 this section of its course the Nile is usually designated on English maps by the 

 name of Somerset. 



The river, which has here a mean breadth of over 1,300 feet, would be perfectly 

 navigable but for its precipitous incline. According to the approximate measure- 

 ments taken by travellers, the total fall in this distance of about 90 miles appears 

 to be 2,310 feet, or about 1 in 205 feet. The Kuruma, the first fall occurring in 

 this part of the Nile, is rather a rapid, where the water, confined between walls of 

 syenite, escapes in sheets of foam down a total incline of about 10 feet. But this 

 is followed by the Tada, Nakoni, Assaka, Kadia, Wade, and Ketutu Falls, forming 

 the chief barriers to the Nile on its descent from the high plateaux. In a space of 

 18 miles it passes from gorge to gorge, rushing over rocky boulders, filling the 

 atmosphere with vapours, which are precipitated as rain on the trees lining its 

 banks. The action of the stream has, so to say, sawn through its stony walls, 

 while gradually lowering its level. On the south bank the cliffs rise to a vertical 

 height of from 140 to 160 feet above the boiling waters. 



This boisterous course of the Somerset Nile terminates in a magnificent fall. 

 I'oi- about 12 miles above it, the bed of the river is so steep that rapids follow in 

 quick succession, with a mean incline of at least 10 in 1,000 yards. Suddenly the 

 current, contracted to a width of scarcely more than 160 feet, is precipitated over a 

 ledge between two black cliffs, plunging from a height of 115 feet into a cauldron 

 of seething waters, above which floats an iridescent haze quivering in the breeze. 

 Some 300 feet above the ever-restless flood the clifEs are fringed with the waving 

 branches of the feathery palm. To this cataract Baker, its discoverer, gave the 

 name of the Murchison Falls, in honour of the learned president of the English 

 Geographical Society. Almost immediately below its last eddies the water 

 becomes quite still, expanding to a breadth of from 500 to 800 feet without any 

 perceptible current, and resembling a backwater of Lake Albert Nyanza rather than 

 the continuation of a rapid stream. This phenomenon is said to be due to a lateral 

 affluent flowing north-west to the Lower Nile without traversing the lake, and 

 constituting the real main stream. 



