Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1886-07-22
THE NILE,
The Mystery of Its Sources Not Yet
Entirely Dispelled.
From the New York Sun.

From the New York Sun.
The notion is quite prevalent that the ex-
plorations of the last twenty-five years have
completely solved the problem of the sources
of the Nile. The fact is, however, that the
mystery of the Niles headwaters is not yet en-
tirely dispelled. We have fuller knowledge to-
day of that later problem, the sources of the
Congo, than of the interesting question that
baffled geographers for ages until Speke par
tally solved it. Lakes Victoria and Albert
Nyanza were recovered respectively by Speke
and Sir Samuel Baker, and for years these
great sheets of water appeared on the maps as
the twin sources OF the Nile. In 1876 Gessj
Pacha, one of General Gordon's assistants, cir
cumnavigated Albert Nyanza in steam launch
The dense acquatic vegetation at the southern
end prevented him from reaching the shore, but
| from his masthead he could see no river and
during his journey he did not discover a single
important tributary. From his voyage dated
the notion that Albert Nyanza is not source;
but only backwater of the Nile, into which
the river pours merely to merge again a little
further north. In the same year Stanley, trav-
elling due west from the north end of Victoria
Nyanza, reached large lake, which he suppos-
ed to be Lake Albert. not knowing that Gessi
had fixed the southern limit of that sheet of
water. This lake is believed from information
to be about 40 miles long and to cover 5000
square miles. Its north end, little north of
the eqator, is supposed to be sixty to eighty
miles south of Albert Nyanza. Its native
name is Muta Nzige. A year later Albert
Hyanza was explored second time by Mason
Bey, who, reaching the south shore, made q
very important discovery that had escaped Gessi
Pacha. He found a river coming from the south
about 300 feet in width, reddish in color,
which poured its sluggish stream in Albert
Nyanza. Neither this river nor Muta Nzige
has yet been explored, and geographers are
divided in 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 Con-
90. rree SIaIe snOuIu De the water parting De-
tween the Congo and the Nile systems. If Muta
Nzige feeds the Nile, theory that is supposed
| by the best geographical authority on several
excellent grounds, large region tributary to
the lake cannot, as at present, figure much
longer on the map of the Congo state, Stanley
argues that Muta Nzige must empty into the
Congo, because, in his opinion, the Lira and
Lulu, tributaries of that river, have not space
enough, without the help of this lake, to collect
their large volume of water. 1t can be said,
however, that without the lake they have as
much drainage area as some other important
African rivers possess. Without enumberating
here the many reasons for believing that Muta
Nzige is one of the souces of the Nile, it NAV
be mentioned that it is very difficult to explain
how it is that the Nile emerges from Albert
Nyanza with nearly double the volume of water
it pOurs into it, unless that small lake is con-
nected with the far more important sourse Of
supply just little south of it, There can
hardly fail to be an ample supply of volunteers
for African exploration service as long as there
is light still to be shed upon so interesting a
problem as the source of the Nile.