The New York herald., 1875-11-29
| -. s--aIsy's ExpHOrstions Abeus the
sources or enc VILE.

sensation in England. 1t is one Of the most
remarkable contributions TO geographical
discovery and the literature of travel and ad-
venture since the time Of Bruce. In it he
\ touches the very marrow of the problem
i which was q leading topic of inquiry with
Aristotle, Ptolemy and Herodotus, and which
we recognize in the familiar garb of 'the
sources of the Nile" We are not prepared
to assert, as some Of our able contemporaries
all doubts as to the sources Of that mysteri-
Gus river. nor indeed that he has, as yet sc-
tually discovered the fountain-head. But
we may claim, upon the evidence presented
this morning, that he has reached and navl-
gated the furthermost southern waters OF the
Victoria Lake and its tributaries, and must
be considered now as the first authority on
the main question of African geography. The
map of the Victoria Niyanza, which we pub
lish to-day, will facilitate the study of the
reader, while the views of Sir II Rawlinson,
President of the Royal Geographical Society,
expressed in his recent address, will be found
Of great interest and value
Mr. Stanleys heroic labors let Us briefly
survey the flow of the Nile. Following the
tide of tourists who enter Egypt at the port
of Alexandria we proceed from Boulac. the
port of Cairo, along the broad bosom of
swift-fowing stream, and nearly thousand
miles from the Mediterranean, at the first
cataract, all river traffic ceases. Nile travel
along this route of gigantic ruins and impos-
ing temples is feast, and for nearly half a
century it has been the fashion of the
wealthier classes, craving curious sights in
Oriental lands, to spend winter Of luxury
idling along the stream. From the second
cataract, three hundred miles beyond, the
provinces of Egypt are thinly populated.
The river, sweeping around great bend to
westward, leaps over cataracts which impede
all navigation, and it is only when Berber two
thousand miles from the delta, is reached,
that the traveller is on the borders of Central
Africa and in the midst of thoroughly abor-
iginal peoples. Away to southwark, en-
bracing over fifteen degrees of latitude, are
tribes numbering as high in the aggregate
as thirty millions of souls, who have been
the prey of slave hunters, torn asunder
again and again by native wars, but now
happily attached by conquest to the fortunes
of Egypt. 1t is over this wild and pesti-
lential domain, to southwark of Khartoum,
that so many intrepid explorers have pene-
trated-the majority to lose their lives-and
the prize has been the sources of the Nile
Mr.. Stanley, who had been three times in
Africa, at Magdala, Coomassie and Ujiji, be-
fore entering upon the present journey,
made thorough study of the various routes
by which he should approach the territory
where the fountain-head lies, and in this
inquiry he enjoyed peculiar advantages. On
terms of personal intimacy with leading
geographers and travellers of the world,
seeking their counsel and advice, he at
last determined to enter Africa by
from the coast opposite Zanzibar, and his
triumphant progress has been recorded from
time to time in these columns. At last,
reaching the shores Of the Victoria Niyanza,
he has startled the scientific world by dis
covering and fixing by astronomical OBJ
sorvations the flow of the Shimeeyu-a
river three hundred and seventy miles long,
rising at the intersection of the fifth degree
of south latitude and the thirty-ffth me-
ridian of longitude east from Greenwich.
Mr. Stanley describes this stream "as by far
the noblest river that empties into the lake
the extreme southern source of the
Nile" 1t is mile wide at the mouth, not
q NhA ,ta
Nile, and is supplied by several not unim-
portant feeders. These affiuents are fed by
mountain streams which rise on the western
slope of the great range of which Kilimanjaro
and Keania are conspicuous peaks. This
discovery goes far to substantiate the theory
of Chief Justice Daily, recently published in
the HERALD. The astute President of the
American Geographical Society, going back to
the days of ancient learning, has pointed
out that the range of mountains to which
we have alluded is the same then identified
by Aristotle and Herodotus. Not only has
he shown this, but the still more remarkable
identity of the Albert and Victoria Niyanzas,
with the two lakes of Ptolemy boldly craven
on his map.
But let US ask the geographers to look at
another phase of this Nile question; for Mr..
Stanley still has work to do, which, we are
confident will be performed with all the
energy, enthusiasm and accuracy which
have characterized his survey of the Victo-
ria Niyanza. The Albert Niyanza, first dis
covered and navigated by Sir Samuel Baker,
is an important element in the discussion.
With the exception of Baker no white man
has ever sailed upon its waters; no one has
ever circumnavigated its shores and no one
seems competent to deal with its real or i'm
aginary proportions Baker, with apparent
justice, calls it the great basin Of the Nile
that is the main reservoir Of the White or
true Nile. If Sir Samuel Baker is right, and