398 Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



110 miles east of Gondokoro. That country produced ample sup- 

 plies of grain and supported large herds. The towns are thickly 

 populated, and the inhabitants are a warlike but friendly race, who 

 go naked, and train their hair into a kind of natural helmet. The 

 bodies of those who are killed in fight are not buried, but those who 

 die naturally are interred in front of the houses in which they had 

 dwelt, and at the expiration of a fortnight are exhumed, the flesh 

 removed, and the bones put in earthen pots, which are placed at the 

 entrance of the towns. From Latooka he proceeded to Kamrasi's 

 country, across an elevated region, the watershed of the Sobat and 

 White Nile rivers. From the ridge he descended into the valley of 

 the Asua, which river Captain Burton regarded as the main stream 

 of the White Nile, but which, when Mr. Baker crossed it in January, 

 did not contain enough water to cover his boots. He crossed 

 Karuma Falls in the same boat which had carried Captain Speke, 

 but he was detained for some days by the disinclination of 

 the King Kamrasi to allow strangers to pass over. From 

 Karuma Falls the Nile flows due west, a rapid stream, bordered 

 with fine trees. King Kamrasi, was very suspicious, and sought to 

 prevent Mr. Baker continuing his journey, by representing that the 

 great lake was six months' journey — a statement which he received 

 as a fatal blow to all his hopes. Learning, however, from a native 

 that the lake could be reached in something like ten days, he induced 

 Kamrasi, by presents, to allow them to depart. In crossing the 

 Karan river on the way to the lake, Mrs. Baker was struck down by 

 a sunstroke, and remained almost insensible for seven days, during 

 which time the rain poured down in torrents. 



On the eighteenth day after leaving Kamrasi they came in sight 

 of the looked-for lake, a limitless sheet of blue water sunk low in a 

 vast depression of the country, surrounded by cliffs, 1,500 feet in 

 height. The western shore, sixty miles distant, consisted of ranges 

 of mountains 7,000 feet in height. Mr. Baker named the lake, 

 Albert Nyanza. That lake, together with the Victoria Nyanza, 

 may be regarded as the great reservoirs of the Nile, which issued 

 from the lake precisely as the natives had reported to Speke and 

 Grant, and from its exit the river is navigable as far as the narrows 

 near the junction of the Asua. Mr. Baker's progress up the Upper 

 or Karuma river was stopped, at fifteen miles distant, by a grand 

 waterfall, which had been named Murchison Falls. Upon their 

 return to Kamrasi's country the travellers were detained nearly 

 twelve months, the King being so impressed with the knowledge of 

 his European visitors that he would not let them leave him. Ulti- 

 mately the travellers managed to get free, and arrived safely at 

 Alexandria. 



