LAKE ALBERT NYANZA. 39 



Lake Albert Nyanza. 



The lake discovered by Baker, and by him named the Albert Nyanza, is known 

 to the people on its east bank as the Mwûtan-Nzigé, or " Grasshopper Sea." 

 Others call it the " Great Water," although far inferior in extent to the Victoria 

 Nyanza. It stretches south-west and north-east for a distance of about 90 miles, 

 with a mean breadth of over 18 miles. According to Mason's rough survey it has 

 a superficial area of 1,850 square miles, and stands at an altitude of 2,300 feet. 

 From the Victoria to this lower basin the Nile has consequently descended nearly 

 half of the entire elevation of the continent between the plateaux and the 

 Mediterranean. Like the Dead Sea, the Mwûtan-Nzigé seems to fill a fissure in 

 the earth's crust. It is enclosed right and left by steep mountains, whereas at its 

 northern and southern extremities it terminates in gently shoaling bays and low- 

 lying beaches. The high cliffs on the east side, consisting of granite, gneiss, and 

 red porphyry, form a first stage in the ascent towards the TJ-Nyoro and U-Ganda 

 plateaux. The streams flowing from the swamps on these uplands have not yet 

 completed their work of erosion by furrowing regular channels across the outer 

 scarps of the plateau. Hence, like the Nile at Murchison Falls, they have all still 

 to make their way through cataracts, where the volume of water is less but the 

 fall much greater, being approximately estimated for most of them at about 

 320 feet. 



Livingstone and other explorers of Central Africa supposed that Lake 

 Tanganyka belonged to the Nile basin, sending its overflow north-eastwards to the 

 Albert Nyanza. But subsequent investigation has shown that the two lakes have 

 no commimication with each other. During their trips round the latter, both 

 Gessi and Mason ascertained that from the south it receives no affluent except a 

 shallow, sluggish stream, almost choked with vegetation. In this marshy district 

 it is covered with a floating or half-submerged forest of ambach (ambaj), a 

 leguminous plant {Jierminiera elaphroxylo'ti), 18 or 20 feet high, with star-shaped 

 leaves and golden yellow flowers like those of the broom. Its wood, which 

 resembles cork in appearance, is the lightest known to botanists, so light that a raft 

 strong enough to support eight persons forms the load of a single porter. It 

 grows so densely that the native boats are unable to penetrate the tangled masses 

 of vegetation springing from the muddy bottom of the lake. Beyond this aquatic 

 forest Gessi beheld a vast prairie rolling away between two steep mountains, which 

 formed a southern continuation of the coast ranges. 



Lake Albert, continually renewed by contributions from the Nile, is everywhere 

 sweet and pure, except in the southern shallows, where the water is turbid and 

 brackish, and in some places on the east side, where it mingles with saline springs, 

 utilised by the people of U-Nyoro. Although no distinct undercurrents have 

 been observed, the navigation is rendered very dangerous by the sudden squalls 

 sweeping round the headlands and down the mountain gorges. When embarking 

 on their frail craft the natives never fail to cast some valued object into the lake 

 as a propitiatory offering to the water-gods. A chief, one of Baker's friends, 



