UGANDA AND WEST SIDE OF VICTORIA NYANZA. 249 
colour, may be traced several miles out. At its mouth 
it is about 150 yards wide, and at two miles above 
narrows to about 100 yards. We attempted to ascend 
higher, but the current was so strong that we made but 
slow progress, and after an ascent of three miles were 
obliged to abandon it. The plain on either side has a 
breadth of from five to ten miles, which during the 
rainy season is inundated throughout its whole extent. 
THE VICTORIA NILE. 
The deepest soundings we obtained were eighty-five 
feet. I know no other river to equal this in magnitude 
among the affluents of the Victoria Nyanza. The 
Shimeeyu river thus becomes the second largest affluent 
of the lake, and the two united would form a river 
equal to that which has its exit by the Ripon Falls. 
The Waganda Watongolehs, Sentum and Sentageya, 
call the Alexandra Nile the “ Mother of the River at 
Jinja ” or the Ripon Falls. 
