American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1875-10-30
The Nile Mystery.

I'd like to know what you put up ag IN
that rooster. ''-Merididn (Ga.) Homestead.
The Nile Mystery.
In general explanation of the Central
Africa discoveries we find that the re-
corded results of many explorations with
| in the last sixty years are, due to the lofty
ambition and the inspiring temptation of
| discovering the source or sources of the
wonderful Nile and of its steady and
| never-failing stream, and of its annual
| fertilizing inundation of Egypt. Bruce,
on reaching in Abyssinia the sources of
the Blue Nile, thought he had discovered
the head-springs Of the main river; but
the Blue Nile to the White Nile bears
Hardly the same comparison of length
and drainage that the upper Mississippi
bears to the greater Missouri.
The Viceroy of Egypt's expedition, over
thirty years ago, was the first regularly
organized and equipped undertaking to
determine the length and sources of the
White Nile or main river. This expedi-
ton assembled the stream from the cataracts
of Egypt to point four degrees north of
| the equator and within 100 miles of Lake
Albert, when, dispirited and exhausted,
| it faced about and returned down the river
to Cairo. The first actual discovery of
one of the fountain heads of the great
river was that of Spoke and Grant, in
their discovery of the great lake, to
which, in honor of their sovereign, they
gave the name of Victoria, coupling it
with the native name N 'yanza, or Niyanza.
They traced it to its outlet, and Its outlet
they found was the Nile, or a branch of
the Nile. Convinced on their part that
they had discovered the fountain-head of
the river they SO reported it and it was so
accepted by the world until Sir Samuel
Baker, a few years later, in ascending the
main stream from Abyssinia, discovered
west of the Victoria and crossing the
equator, too, another great lake tributary
to the Nile, to which, in honor of the
worthy cOnsort of His Sovereign, he gave
the name of Albert Niyanza Thus, it
was considered that the whole problem of
the source of the Nile was settled, except
ing the extent and the drainage of the Al
bert Lake. But it was inferred by the
London Royal Geographical Society that
| this lake extended southwark only de-
gree or two below the equator, and that,
with the Victoria, it absorbed all the
| fountain heads of the Nile. But Living
stone, meantime, from Lake TanganyiFa
westward, had been quietly pursuing, I'M
known to the world, his labOrious explc-
rations and his extraordinary discoveries
in that great interior region of fertile low
lands, and of springs, lakes and rivers,
which we will call Livingstone's Interior
Basin. In consulting our map the reader
will perceive that all this vast system of
lakes and rivers, through the Lualaba
and the LOmame, are drained into one
great, heavy stream flowing westward, and
that this stream as in an unknown desert,
is suddenly cut off.
This is the Me mystery, which still
remains unsolved, and here lies the ulti-
mate and paramount work of Stanley in
his present expedition, for here it was that
Livingstone compelled to relinquish
the prize within his grasp end to abandon
it from sheer exhaustion.
This great interior basin, extending
through over ten degrees of latitude, and
stretching across twelve degrees of longi-
tude, may, in general terms, be described
as covering an area equal to the section
of the United States embraced between the
latitude of this city and the Gulf of Mex
leo on the one hand, and between the
Atlantic coast and the Mississippi River
on the other. And all the drainage of
this great basin,. from all its countless
springs, lakes and rivers, drawn from the
enormous rainfall of Equatorial Africa,
as Livingstone believed from his re-
searches and from the course of the great
outfiowing river, belongs to the Nile. In
this belief he died, and in this belief his
welcome companion on the Tanganyika
and his successor to his unfinished work
has gone out to finish it. If established
that this system of interior rivers and
lakes is tributary to the Nile, then the
great river of Egypt, flowing through
forty -four degrees Of latitude, or with
distance in straight line of 5000 miles
between its sources and its delta on the
Mediterranean, becomes the longest river
in the world.
Stanley has established its drainage by
the Victoria Lake as extending to four
degrees south of the equator, or sixty-five
degrees from its functions with the sea.
Thus, as our mighty Mississippi flows
through only twenty degrees of latitude,
it must be admitted that old Grandfather
Nile, leaving out Livingstone's extension,
in his length and unfailing strength
eclipses the g Father of Waters" Flow
ing 800 miles through roasting desert
without tributary, the volume of water
the Nile carries to the sea is much less
than that of the Mississippi, while its
supply from the clouds in the rainy d.
vision of the continent which it crosses
is much greater.
Livin gstone made Lake Tanganyika, at
Ujiji, his headquarters for several years.
He had been up and down it and far to
the south of 1t, but had not discovered its
outlet when he was found and rescued by
Stanley. The two men in an expedition
by boat discovered a powerful stream flow
ing into the lake at its northern extremity,
from which they naturally concluded that
its outlet was at its southern extremity,
and that the stream in enthusiastically
course was discharged into the Indian
Ocean But Lieut.. Cameron's discovery
of the outlet of this lake causes us to re-
greet that Livingstone did not make it. This
Cameron, a young and active British ex-
plOrer, in recent circumnavigation OF
this beautiful lake, discovered its outlet
on its western side, and from our latest
advices concerning him we presume that
he is now threading by boat the mazes OF
AVingstone's basin. The fact is estab-
lished that the Tanganyika Lake is tribu'
tary to the Laulaba, and as the Laulaba
joins the Lomame we have only to make
d connection between this stream and
the Nile in order to connect the Tangan-
yika with Lake Albert.
Cameron set out on his voyage down the
outlet from Tanganyika, fully satisfied
that he was on the waters of the Congo
and would come out by this river into the
Lomame, which drain this interior basin,
pursue a course, not westward to the Con-
go, but northward to the Nile. Nor can
we resist the conclusion that, If the
Lomame is not discharged into Lake
Albert, it will be found to be the Bahr-el-
GhaZal, n great river which enters the
| Nile on the west side some 400 miles north
of the Albert Lake. Petherick's explOra-
tions of this great tributary, or main river,
| does not overthrow this theory, for he did
| not pursue the Bahrcl-GhaZal to its
| sources, while between the asceTtained
basin of the LOmame and that of the Con-