The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1875-11-12


river was that of Spoke and Grant,
in their discovery of the great lake, tC
which, in honor of their sovereign, they
gave the name of Victoria, coupling il
with the native name N'yanza or Niyan.
"a. They traced it to its outlet, ana It's
outlet they found was the Nile, or a
branch of the Nile. Convinced on thoil
part that they had discovered the foun-
tain-head of the river, they so reported
it, and it was so accepted by the world
until Sir Samuel Baker, few years later,
in ascending the main stream from Abys-
sinia, discovered west of the Victoria
and crossing the equator, too, another
great lake tributary to the Nile, to which
in honor to the worthy consort of his
Sovereign, he gave the name of Albert
Niyanza. Thus it was considered that
the whole problem of the sources of the
Nile was settled, excepting the extent
and the drainage of the Albert Lake
But it was inferred by the London Roy
al Geographical Society that this lake
extended southwark only degree or
two below the equator, and that, with
the Victoria, it absorbed all the foun-
tainheads of the Nile. But Livingstone,
meantime, from Lake Tanganyika west
ward, had been quietly pursuing, un-
known to the world, his laborious ex-
plorations and his extraordinary discov.
cries in that great interior region of fer
tile lowlands, and of springs, lakes, and
rivers which we will call Livingstone's
Interior Basin. All this vast system of
lakes and rivers, through the Lualaba
and the Lomame, is drained into one
great heavy stream flowing westward,
and that this stream, as in an unknown
desert, is suddenly cut off.
This is the Nile 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 was compelled to re-
lnquish the prize within his grasp and
to abandon it from sheer exhaustion.
The great Interior Basin, extending
through over ten degrees of latitude and
stretching across twelve degrees of longi-
tude, may, in general terms, be de-
scribed as covering an area equal to the
section of the United States embraced
between the latitude of this city and
the Gulf of Mexico on the one hand, and
between the Atlantic coast and the Mis-
sissippi river on the other. And all the
drainage of the great basin, from all its
countless springs, lakes, and rivers,
drawn from the enormous rainfall of
Equatorial Africa, as Livingstone be-
Geved from his researches and from the
course of the great outflowing river, be-
longs to the Nile. In this belief he died,
and in this belief his welcome compan-
ion 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 riverof 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 Mediterra-
mean, becomes the longest river i'll the
world.
Stanley has established its drainage
by the Victoria Lake as extending to
four degrees south of the Equator, or
thirty-six degrees from its junction with
the sea. Thus, as our mighty Mississip-
pi flows through only twenty degrees of
latitude, it must be admitted that old
Grandfather Nile, leaving out Living
stones extension, in his length and un-
failing strength eclipses the Father of
Waters" Flowing 1,500 miles through
a roasting desert without tributary, the
volume of water which the Nile carries
to the sea is much less than that of the
Mississippi, while its supplies from the
clouds in the rainy division of the con-
tinent which it crosses are much greater.
Livingstone made this lake at Ujiji his
headquarters for several years. He had
been up and down it and far to the south
of it, but had not discovered its outlet
when he was found and rescued by
Stanley. Tie two men in an expedition,
by boat, as we have said, discovered a
powerful stream flowing 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 southeastwardly course was
discharged into the Indian Ocean. But
Lieut.. Cameron's discovery of the outlet
of this lake causes us to regret that Liv-
ingstone did not make it. This Came
ron, young and active British explorer,
in a recent circumnavigation of this
beautiful lake, discovered its outlet
on its western side, and, from our latest
advices concerning HIM, we presume he
is now threading by boat the mazes of
Livingstone's basin. The fact is estab-
hshed that the Tanganyika Lake is tribu-
tary to the Lualaba, and as the Lualaba
joins the Lomame we have only to make
a connection between this stream and
the Nile in order to connect the Tan
ganyika with Lake Albert.
Cameron set out on his voyage down
the outlet from Tanganyika fully salts
fed that he was on the waters of the
Congo and would come out by this river
into the Atlantic Ocean. But the Lua-
laba and the Lomame, which drain this
interior basin, pursue course, not west
ward to the Congo, 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, a great river which
enters the Nile on the west side some
400 miles north of Albert Lake. Peth-
erick's exploration of this great tributary
or main river does not overthrow this
theory, for he did not pursue the Bahr-
ell. Ghazal TO its sources, while between
tho ascertained basin of the Lomame
/ oo1 tbot of tba Congo therp 10 n chain of