CHARACTERISTICS AND DISTRIBUTION OF LAKES 615 
Lake Tang'anyika (or Tanganika^) is about 400 miles long by 
30 to 60 miles broad, with an area of 12,700 square miles, and lies 2624 
feet above sea-level. Little is known regarding the depth of the lake, 
as it has never been systematically sounded ; but a depth of 2100 feet 
is reported by Giraud ofFMrumbi, on the west coast, while livingstone ^ 
states that he sounded opposite the high mountains of Kabogo, south 
of Ujiji, where he found 1956 feet, and Moore,^ referring to a spot 
near the south end, speaks of 1200 feet and upwards. 
Hore ^ found the water of the lake fresh, and considered that the 
taste resembled that of distilled water rather than that of spring 
water. Frankland, who made an analysis of samples brought home 
by Hore for the purpose, reported it to be similar to Thames 
water, but with very much less organic impurity. Moore ^ says 
the water of Tanganyika is somewhat salt, though it seems to be 
fresher now than when liivingstone and Stanley examined it ; while, as 
both these explorers aver, there are traditions among the Arabs that 
in the recollection of living men it was a lake which never flowed out 
at all. To-day it drains intermittently by the Lukuga to the 
Congo, and it is a most remarkable fact that the outlet of Lake Kivu, 
the Rusisi, which flows into Lake Tanganyika, is five or six times 
larger than the Lukuga, the outlet of Tanganyika itself. If, therefore, 
the Rusisi River were cut of!' from Lake Tanganyika, that lake would 
altogether cease to overflow. Moore ^ argues from these considera- 
tions that probably, after the drainage of Lake Kivu had been turned 
away from Lake Albert by the formation of the volcanoes,^ that 
lake overflowed into Tanganyika for a number of years, until the 
level of the latter was raised to such a degree that it in like manner 
overflowed and cut a channel to the west into the Congo. This 
view of the matter explains also the fact that there are everywhere 
indications that Tanganyika formerly stood at a much higher level. 
Cunnington ^ considers the water of Lake Tanganyika perfectly fresh 
and pure, and says that if, as has been suggested, there has been 
for ages some sort of periodicity in the forming and breaking of mud 
and vegetable barriers across the Lukuga River, we must be face to 
face with a lake in which the quantity of salts in solution has been 
and still is varying from time to time. 
1 See Geogr. Joum., vol. xxvii. p. 411, 1906. 
2 Last Journals, vol. ii. p. 19, London, 1874. 
The Tanganyika Problem, p. 48, London, 1903. 
* Tanganyika: Eleven Years in Central Africa, p. 146, London, 1893. 
5 Op. cit., p. 90. 
6 Log. cit. 
7 See p. 610. 
^ This and other references are to an unpublished memoir submitted by 
Dr Cunnington. 
