The Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Ohio) 1863-1886, 1864-01-14

facilitate that tendency. 1t was the
sole source Of food and drink for all
Egypt, and by the constancy of its
munlficence it stood before the people
as their best emblem of that all-suf-
ficency of Providence which the hu
man heart demands, supreme .provi-.
der, that giveth to all life, and breath,
and all things
Doubtless the suporsttious voncra-
tion in which the Egyptians held their
sacred river was in no small degree
enhanced by the mystery that hung
over its origin, 1t came to them from
an unknown land, region that no
man had seen, and from which there
came no tidings. The place and char
acter of the fountains that fed the fer
tilizing floods of the great river were
left to the sport of mems imaginatlens,
and it is not at all strange that they
were placed in region of prodigics,
and themselves invested with wonder
ful properties. And, in fact, no other
region of the earth has been made to
the same degree the theatre Of pleas
ing legends and strange fantasies as
this, the locale of the Happy Valley
Of Rasselas and the barbaric throne of
Prester John. 1t seemed almost a
thing to be desired that such place
might nave been kept from human
scrutiny as playground for the i'm
agination, where its fancy might build
its air-castles and people them with its
favoritc creation.
But alongside of mems ntuitivc ten
dcncy to reverence the mysterious and
unknown is found a restless inclina-
tion to pry into whatever is shutup
and explore all mysteries. So, from
a very early period it became a mat,
ter of deep interest among the learned
Egyptians to trace the sacred river to
its hidden springs. How far they cx-
tended their investigations, and to
what extent they carried their geo.
graphical researches, can not be certain
ly determined, but the modern traveller
is not unfrcqucntly surprised to find
evidences of,thcir former preg;eeiT,iN il
regions where he had far'Ned civEizSet
men had never before come. Nm tl'A
second century Ptolemy, the a5gr6no-
mer, devoted much attontA,oG to the
geography of Upper Egypt, and re-
corded facts respecting the sources of
the Nile that coincide strongly with
the results of modern discoveries He
states that the White Nile has it's source
in two lakes which are themselves fed
from the melting snow Of the adjacent
hills, which hills he styles the Noun
tains of the Moon There are also
said to be ancient maps which locate
the branches Of the river and the great
lakes that feed them not very differ
ent from their recently determined po-
sitions. ...
OF the two Ethiopian rivers, known
respectively as the Blue and the White
Nile, which unite above the catcracts
and thus form the great Ethiopian
river, the former, or eastern branch
brings its blue water from the high hills
of Abyssin;a. This was formerly
reckoned as the only real Upper Nile
and accordingly it was first explored
The Jesuit missionaries, during the
sixteenth ceptury, traced it to its
fountain head, ip which they were fol
lowed nearly two hundred years later
by the Scotch traveller, Bruce. Du-
ring all this time the more western
branch, called from the turbid, milky
appearance Of its waters, the White
Nile, though the larger of the two, re.
ceived but little attention, and its
source continued to be profound mys
f terry. 1T exploration was, however
undertaken in earnest by Ali Pasha
f who, from 1889 to 1912, sent out three
separate expeditions for that purpose
but none of them advanced further
than about the fifth degree Of north
latitude, and at the utmost point tC
) which they proceeded the river was
still broad and deep stream, and the
natives assured that it continued thir
ty days journey further. Later eX
plorations, though they have added
much to the general knowledge of the
whole region, have not at all enlarged
the area of our information respecting
, it. In this state matters stood Til
taken in hand by those to whom has
, fallen the good fortune to win the
prize for which many have striyen il
vain.
In 1858 an expedition set out from
, Zanzibar, led by two British officers
Captain Burton and Lieutenant Spoke
both in the India service, and pro
ceeded due west to the region indica-
ted by gcographers as the place of the
Mountains of the Moon. There, ir
; an elevated but not especially mount
famous country, they found the Lake
Tanganyika, extending more than twC
hundred miles north and south, ant
filling an elongated valley in the noun
tain range, The northern extremity
of this lake lies more than three de
grees south of the equator, and botf
the travellers believed thet it did no
dischargeit its waters portRward. Iie4t
epant Speko also made . separate jour
ney somc two hundred miles north
eastward, and between the third ant
/, second degrees of south latitude h
: found vast inland sea--the Lake Ny
anza-full of islands, and wider thar
he could see across This he fully be
lieved to be the source of tho Whitl
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