* 3 o ROOSEVELTS JOURNEY FROM UGANDA DOWN THE NILE 
The Albert Nyanza, a lake much smaller than the Victoria, lies in 
the course of the Nile, but cannot be said to be traversed by it. On the 
contrary the river enters and leaves it at its northern corner, passing 
through only a few miles of its area, yet doubtless gaining from it 
important additions to its flood. Other additions come from the Albert 
Edward Nyanza, which receives the drainage of the Ruwenzori Moun¬ 
tains and is connected with the Albert Nyanza by the Semliki River. 
It is to these three central African lakes that the Nile owes the great 
volume of its flood, gaining the abundant waters which for thousands 
of years have brought to the land of Egypt perennial fertility. 
After leaving the Albert Nyanza, the next point of interest is the 
former Arab slave-station of Gondokoro, more than two hundred 
miles to the north. Though this distance may be traversed by boat, 
the Roosevelt party made its way by land, journeying through a very 
difficult stretch of country, a wilderness so forbidding to the white 
men that even the enterprising telegraph companies have not yet ven¬ 
tured to carry their wires through it, all communication being made 
by native runners. But it presented excellent opportunities for hunt¬ 
ing, and on reaching Gondokoro on February 17th the adventurers 
declared that the past ten days had been one of the most enjoyable parts 
of their entire African trip. Certainly they looked it, to judge from 
the healthy aspect of the whole party. 
Gondokoro lies in the territory of the Bari tribe of the Soudanese 
negroes, on the east bank of the Nile, the west bank at this point being 
in the most northerly stretch of the territory of the Congo Free State. 
Long ago the Arabs made it a center of the slave and ivory trade, and 
though the former has been suppressed, the ivory trade is still active, 
a number of ivory merchants making Gondokoro their headquarters. 
Here the steamboats of the Soudan government call once a month, 
carrying passengers and the mail between this place and Khartum, 
nine hundred miles to the north. 
The entrance of the Roosevelt expedition to this far inland Nile 
station was rudely picturesque, the British and natives alike doing 
their utmost to give a fitting welcome to the travel-hardened wan¬ 
derers. A party of the Bari tribe, Chief Keriba and his band of native 
musicians at their head, met the Americans sixteen miles south and 
