Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1872-09-12
Letter from DR.. Livingstone to His
Brother in Canada.

ToRoNTo, Ont, August 49,
THE following is Doctor Livingstone's
letter to his brother in Canada:
UJIJG Nov IT, 1871
My DEAR BROTHER: | received your
welcome letter in February last, written
when the cable news made you put of
your suits of mourning. This was the
first intimatiOn | had that the cable had
been successfully laid in the Ieep Atlantic.
Very few letters have reached me for
years, in consequence Of my friends
specializing where | should come out on
the west coast, down the Nile, or else
where. The watershed is broad upland
between 4. 600 and 5, 900 feet above the
sea and some seventy miles long The
springs Of the Nile that rise thereon are
almost innumcrable. 1t would take the
best part of mans lifetime 20 count
them One part, sixty.four miles of lati
tude, gave thirty four springs, from calf
to waist deep, or one spring for every two
miles. A Bird eye view Of them would
be like the vegetation of frost on window
panes. To ascertain that all these foun-
tains united with the four great rivers in
the upper part of the Nile Valley was
the work OF time and much travel Many
weary foot trOd ere light dawncd on
the ancient problem. If had left at the
end of two years, for which my bare ex.
penses were paid, | could have thrown
very little more light on the country than
the Portuguese who, in their three slavery
visits to Cazembe, asked for ivory and
slaves, and heard of nothing else, asked
about the waters, questioned, and cross
questioned till | was really ashamed, and
almost afraid of being set down as atliict-
ed with hydrocephalus ] went forward,
backwards, and sideways, feeling my
way, and every step of the, way | was
generally cropping in the dark, for
who cared where the rivers ran ?
OF these four rivers into which the
springs of the Nile converge, the
central one, called Lualaba, is the largest
1t begins at the River Chambezi, which
flows into the great Lake Langwolo. On
leaving it its name is changed from Cham
bezi to Luapula, and that enters Lake
MOero Coming out of il, the name Lual-
aba is resumed, and it Rows into third
lake, Kamolondo, which receives one Of
the four large drains mentioned above, 1t
then flows on, and makes two enormous
bends to the west, which made me often
fear that | was following the Congo in
stead Of the Nile 1t is from one to three
miles broad, and can never be waded at
any part or at any time Of the year. Far
down the valley it receives another Of the
four large rivers above mentioned, the
Locke, or Lamame, which flows through
what | have named Lake Lincoln, and
then Joins Central Lualaha We have,
then, only two lines Of drainage in the
lower part Of the great valley, and that il
Tanganyika and Albert Lakes which are
but one lake, river or say, il You want
to be pedantc, Lacrustine River These
two form the eastern line Of the Lualaba
which I call Wehb's Lnalaba, aud is then
the western line nearly as depicted by
Ptolemy in the second century Of our era
After the Lamame enters the Luaiaba the
/ fourth great lake in the central line OF
drainage is found but this have not yet
seen, nor yet the link between the eastern
and western mains At the top oi
/ Ptolemy's loop the great central line goes
down into great reedy lakes, possibly
I those reported TO Nero's Centurion, anC
4 these form the western or PetherickI
arm. which Spoke and Grant anC
Baker believed TO be the rive
of Egypt Neither can be called
the Nile, until they unite The lake
mentioned in the central line Of drainage
are by no means the small lake Bang
wolD, at the lowest estimate, Is one hun
bred and fifty miles long, and tried +
cross it and measure its breadth exactly
The first stage was TO an uDinhabitei
island, twentyfour miles; the secont
stage could be seen from It's highest point
or rather The tops Of the trees upon il
evidently lifted up by mirage; the thir
stage, the main land, was said to b