The Arizona sentinel., 1886-08-21
SOURCES OF THE NILE.
The Mystery of the Niles Head-Waters
 Not Yet Entirely Dispelled.

The Mystery Of the Niles Head d-WaCerA
 Not Yet Entirely Dispelled.
 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 Niles headwaters is not yet entirely dis pelled. We have fuller knowledge to-day of that later problem, the sources of the Congo, than of the interesting question that baffied geographers fol ages until Spoke partially solved it.
 Lakes Victoria and Albert Nyanzs were discovered respectively by Spoke 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 Gessi Pasha, one of General Gordon's assistants. circumnavigated Albert Nyanza in steam launch. The dense aquatic 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 a source, but only backwater of the Nile, into which the river pOurS merely to emerge again a little further north.
 In the same year Stanley, travelling due west from the north end of Victoria NvanZa, reached 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 one hundred and forty miles long and to cover about five thousand square miles. Its north end, a little north of the equator, is supposed to be sixty to eighty miles south of Albert Nyanza. Its native name is Muts Nzige.
 A year later Albert Nyanza was ex- plored a second time by Mason Bey, l who, reaching the south shore, made a very important discovery that had es- capped Gessi Pasha. He found river coming from the south about one thou sand feet in width. reddish in color, which poured its sluggish stream into 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 we'll as geographical interest, for the Berlin conference last year agreed that the northeast limit of the Congo Free State should be the water parting be- tween the Congo and the Nile systems. If Muta Nzige feeds the Nile, a theory that is supported by the best geograph- icaI authority on several excellent grounds, large region tributary to the lake can not, 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. It can be said, however, that without the lake they have as much drainage area as some other important African rivers possess. Without enumerating here | 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 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 connected with the far more important source of supply just little south of it.
 There can hardly fail to be an ample supply of volunteers for African ex- ploration service as long as there is light still to be shed upon so interesting i a problem as the sources of the Nile N. '. San.