The Penn's Grove record., 1886-07-31
The Sources of the Nile.

The notion is quite prevalent that the
explorations of the past twenty-five
years have completely solved the prob
lem of the sources of the Nile. The
fact is, however, that the mystery OF the
Nile is not yet entirely dispelled. We
have fuller knowledge to-day of that
later problem, the sources of the Con-
go, than of the interesting question that
baflled the g~eographers for ages until
Spoke partially solved it.
Lakes Victoria and Albert NyanZa
we're discovered respectively by Spoke
and Sir Samuel Baker, and for years
these great sheets of water appeared ON
the map as the twin sources OF the Nile.
In 1876 GesSi Pasha, one of Gen. Cor
don's assistants, circumnavigated Al
bert Nyanza in a steam launch. The
dense aquatic vegetation at the southern
end prevented himcfrom reaching the
shore, but from the masthead he could
see no river, and during his journey he
did not discover a single important trlb-
utary. From his voyage dated the no.
ton that Albert NyanZa is not a source,
but only a backwater of the Nile, into
which the river pours merely to emerge
again q lltIl6 IuTlH6T HOIGu.
In the same year Stanley, travelling
due west from the north end of Victoria
Nyanza, reached a large lake, which he
supposed to be Lake Albert, not know
ing that Gessi had fixed the southern
limit of that sheet of water. This lake
is believed from native information to
be about 140 miles along and to cover
about 5000 square miles. Its north
| end, a little north of the equator, is sup
posed to be sixty to eighty miles south
of Albert Nyanza. Its native name IS
Muta Nzige.
A year later Albert NyanZa was ex-
plored q second time by Mason Bey-
who, reaching, the south shore, made a
very important discovery that had esca-
ped Gessi Pasha. He found a river
coming from the south about ! 300 feet
in width, reddish in color, which pour
ed its sluggish stream into Albert Ny
ANA. Neither this river nor Muta
Nzige has yet been explored, and geog-
raphers are divided i'll opinion as to
whether the large lake feeds the Nile or
the Congo.
The question has some political as
well as geographical interest, for the
reason that the Berlin Conference last
year agreed that the northeast limit OF
the Congo Free State should be the
water parting between the Congo and
| Nile systems. Muta NZige feeds the
| Nile, a theory tha5 is supposed by the
best geographical authority on several
excellent grounds, a large region trib-
utary to the lake cannot, as at present
figure much longer on the map of the
| Congo State.
Stanley argues the Muta Nzige must
empty into the Congo, because, in his
opinion, the Lira and Lulu, tributarieso of
that river, have not space enough,
without the help of the lake, to collect
their large volume of water. 1t can be
I said, however, that without the lake
they have as mnch drainage area as
some other important African rivers
possess. Without enumerating the many
reasons for believing that Muta Nzige is
one of the sources of the Nile, it may be
mentioned that it is very difficult to eX-
plain how it is that the Nile energies
from Albert Nyanza with nearly double
the volume of water it pours into it, I'M
less that small lake is connected with
the far more important ource of supply
Just a little south of it.
There can hardly fail to be an ample
supply of volunteers for African explo-
ration services as long as there is light
still to be shed upon so interesting a
problem as the sources of the Nile.