1865. J Geography and Ethnology-. 749 



our agents, who had traversed the distance, to be about one thousand 

 miles ; but the distance from the territory of our tributary Kashmir 

 to the same point, is only from four to five hundred miles. 



Passing to Africa, the first subject which came before the Section 

 was the discovery of the new Nilotic Lake, Albert Nyanza, by 

 Mr. Samuel Baker. It was a great disappointment to the meeting to 

 learn that the adventurous explorer himself had not arrived in 

 England, as it was expected he would have been present to give a 

 fuller account of his discovery. According to his last letter he 

 intended to leave Khartum on the 21st of June, so that some obstacle 

 has intervened to delay his homeward voyage. His letters, the con- 

 tents of which have already been made public in ' The Times ' news- 

 paper, were read to the Section, and a discussion took place on the 

 relative values of his discovery and those of the late Captain Speke. 

 A large diagram of Africa was also exhibited, on which the new lake 

 (copied from Mr. Baker's own sketch-map sent home from Khartum) 

 was represented in the position assigned to it by its discoverer. It 

 appeared a little larger than the Victoria Nyanza of Speke, and lay 

 to the west of it, running in a north and south direction, but with a 

 long bend at its southern extremity to the west. It covers the Luta 

 Nzige as represented on Speke' s map, and also part of the smaller 

 lake Rusisi, which Speke had heard of from the natives of Karagwe, 

 and which evidently forms part of the same vast inland sea. The 

 speakers, Sir Boderick Murchison, Mr. F. Galton, and Sir Henry 

 Rawlinson, all agreed that the discovery confirmed the accuracy of 

 Speke's map in so far as concerned the discharge of the waters of the 

 Nile after leaving the Victoria Nyanza into another vast lake, but the 

 President reminded the meeting that the fact of the exit from the 

 lake of the Nile (or the river which flowed past Gondokoro), still 

 remained to be settled by direct observation. 



The only other paper on Africa was one by Mr. Thomas Baines, 

 the artist-traveller, descriptive of the Victoria Falls of the Zambesi, 

 which he visited in 1862, spending several weeks on the spot, survey- 

 ing the district, and sketching and photographing the scenery. A 

 large series of oil-sketches besides diagrams, and a model of the 

 Falls, all the work of the author, were exhibited, and conveyed a far 

 clearer idea of this wonderful feature of Central Africa, than had 

 hitherto been possible. The cataract is produced by the river, at a 

 place where it is a mile-and-a-quarter broad, dropping into a deep 

 narrow chasm which stretches entirely across its bed. From this 

 transverse cleft the waters escape by a narrow passage into a long 

 zigzag gorge, which continues for several days' journey down stream. 

 The height of the cataract is about 400 feet, and the width of the 

 chasm from 70 to 130 yards. From the bottom a dense cloud, or 

 series of clouds, of spray arise to the height of about 1,200 feet, and 

 the perennial shower of scintillating water-drops give rise in certain 

 aspects to brilliant double rainbows. 



Two papers were read by Colonel Pelly, on islands in the Indian 

 Ocean, and off the east coast of Africa : one, the Seychelle group, 



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