Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-12-16
Mr.. Stanley's Discoveries.

In order to understand the importance
of Mr.. SANKEY'S heroic labors let us brief
ly survey the flow of the Nile Following
the tide OF the tourists who enter Egypt at
the port of Alexandria we proceed from
Boulac, the port of Cairo, along the broad
bosom Of a swift-fiowing stream, and near
~ thousand miles from the Mediterra-
mean, at the first cataract, all river traffic
ceases. Nile travelling along this route of
gigantic ruins and imposing temples is
feast, and for nearly half a century it has
been the fashion Of the weather. classes,
craving curious sights in Oriental lands
to spend a winter of luxury idling along
the stream. From the second cataract, 800
miles beyond, the provinces of Egypt are
thinly populated. The river, sweeping
around a great bend to westward, leaps
over cataracts which impede all naviga-
ton, and it is only when Berber, 1900
miles from the delta, is reached, that the
traveller is on the borders of Central Africa
and in the midst of thoroughly aboriginal
peoples. Away to southwark, embracing
over fifteen degrees of latitude, are tribes
numbering as high in the aggregate as
100000 of souls, who have been the
prey Of slave hunters, torn asunder again
and again by native wars, but now happi-
ly attached by conquest to the fortunes of
Egypt It is over this wild and pestilen-
tial domain, to southwark of Khartoum,
that so many intrepid explorers have pen
etrated-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, before entering upon the pres
ent journey, made a thorough study of the
various routes by which he should approach
the territory where the fOuntain-head
lies, and in this inquiry he enjoyed pecul-
lar advantages. On terms of personal in
timacy with leading geographers and trav-
elers Of the world, seeking their counsel
and advice, he at last determined to enter
Africa by the old route Of Spoke and
Grant, from the coast opposite Zanzibar,
and his triumphant progress has been re
corded from time to time in these columns.
At last, reaching the shores of the Vic
toria Niyanza, he has startled the scien-
tifc world by discovering and fixing by
astronomical observations the flow of the
Shimeeyu-a river $40 miles long, rising
at the intersection of the fifth degree of
south latitude and the thirty fifth meridian
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 Niie". 1t is a mile wide at
the mouth, not insignificant compared
with the White Nile, and is supplied by
several not unimportant 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 dis
covery goes far to substantiate the theory
of Chief-Justice DAILY, recently published
in the Herald. The astute President of
the American Geographical Society, GO
ing back to the days of ancient learning,
has pointed out that the range of mount
Gins to which we have alluded is the same
then identified by Aristotle and Herodo-
tus. 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
~ z Herald