The Opelousas courier., 1901-06-29

VSSAeS way
Inc mystery that has always sur.
rounded the great lakes Of Central
Africa is largely solved in the new
number OF the Geographical journal
oy MI. ]. Il. q. Moore. His explora.
tons have linked together much in.
formation previously rather fragmsn.
tary. Tanganyika was discovered By
burton and Spoke in 1857, and the lat.
ter brought to England q few shella
picked up on its shore. which found
their way to the British museum. Some
OF them puzzled the experts, for,
though taken from a fresh water lake
very far inland, they strongly resem.
Dled genera which inhabit the sea,
Ihey had also q curiously old world
aspect, as If they were lineal descend.
ants Of shells which lived about the
time when the limestones called COL.
ties were formed. or considerably be.
fore our chalk was deposited. But the
little known about Africa had led re,
ologists to suppose that, at any rate,
the central and southern parts had
been above the sea far longer than
this. In course Of time, however, more
discoveries were mad In Tanganyika,
including shells Of similar types, De.
cui1ar fishes, crabs, prawns, sponges,
and even a jelly flsh-in fact, q mum.
Der OF creatures, all suggesting that
Il LnAtr anNQsfNpS ho1 hnon ~oos~. TVh-n
IN 1887 Mr.. Moore visited the lake
ana brought back collections which
placed the matter beyond doubt. But
the settlement of that question only
raised another. In what way did Tan.
gany1ka communicate with the sea
Some ten years ago Prof. Suess, of vi.
emma, by piecing together the informa.
tom gathered by travellers in the more
central parts Of Africa, came to the
conclusion that the continent on Its
eastern side was traversed by a re.
markable group of riffs, which had
resulted in the formation Of valleys
In these lay the longer and narrower
OF the African lakes. He traced the
rift system" from Syria, along the
valley Of the Jordan. down the Red
sea-. southwark into Africa. Near LAX.
Rudolf it divides the two branches
opening out to inclose a broad trace
of highlands in the middle of which
Is the wide Victoria Nyanza. The
western arm passes through the Al.
bert lake, Kivu and Tanganyika, turn.
ing eastward from the south end Of
the last to the head of Nyassa. Here
1t La very probably Joined by the east
erD branch, which can br :raced fol
o long way, passing to the west Of
Kenya and Kilimanjaro. These great
riffs would seem to be the natura'
lines Of connection with the ancient
ocean, and, II so, that could be tracked
by seeing which of the lakes contained
the strange creatures Of Tanganyika
So a second expedition was organized
headed by Mr.. Moore to examine thu
whole chain of lakes along the west.
ern Rife Valley" from Nyassa to thu
Albert Nyanza. His former expedi,
ton had made 1t almost certain thai
Nyassa had never been in communi
cation with the sea. Consequently
the way could not have been from thu
south. In Tanganyika he found still
more evidence OF an ancient marin
fauna which had tenanted Ito water,
at o time when the lake covered
much larger area. But neither Ii
Kivu nor In the Albert Edward lake
nor In the Albert Nyanza could he dis
cover any traces Of these marine crea
lures. Their fauna. like that Of Ny
ASA, was wholly lacustrine. More thar
that, MI. Moore found that the rive
draining Kivu descends as a torred
through an upland region to the oil
head of Tanganyika and that the for
mer lake is cut off from the ALDER
Edward by huge mass of volcanoe
some Of which are still active. Strang
as 1t may seem he gives good reason
for believing that Kivu had beel
formed by the outbreaking Of thes
volcanoes, which have damned up
stream that formerly ran to the nortl
till the water at last found an out
let in the opposite direction down t
Tanganyika. Thus, strange as 1t ma.
seem, the sea can only have lain t.
the west, over the present basin Of tn
Congo nndon Standard.