VIEW OF THE NILE AT LAKE VICTORIA NYANZA.
It was Speke's desire to proceed northward and then to the east, for the
purpose of reaching the point where the Nile was supposed to flow out
from Victoria Nyanza.
His description of the accomplishment of his purpose is interesting:
"Here at last I stood on the brink of the Nile; most beautiful was the
scene; nothing could surpass it! It was the very perfection of the kind
of effect aimed at in a highly kept park; with a magnificent stream,
from six hundred to seven hundred yards wide, dotted with islets and
rocks,--the former occupied by the fishermen's huts, the latter by many
crocodiles basking in the sun,--flowing between fine grassy banks, with
rich trees and plantations in the background, where herds of the
hartbeest could be seen grazing, while the hippopotami were snorting in
the water, and florikin and guinea fowl rising at our feet."
He proceeded some distance up the left bank of the Nile, keeping away
from the stream. Passing through rich jungles, and gardens of plantain,
he reached Isamba Falls. Here he found the river exceedingly beautiful.
Deep banks covered with fine grass, beautiful acacias, and festoons of
lilac-colored convolvuli stretched, along on either side of the stream.
He continued his journey up stream to Ripon Falls, through extensive
village plantations recently despoiled by herds of elephants, and over
rugged hills, to be rewarded by the most interesting scene he had yet
found in Africa.
Speaking of the falls, he writes: "Everybody ran to see them at once,
though the march had been long and fatiguing; even my sketchbook was
called into play.
"Though beautiful, the scene was not exactly what I had expected; for
the broad surface of the lake was shut out from view by a spur of hill,
and the falls, about twelve feet deep and four hundred to five hundred
feet broad, were broken by rocks.
"Still, it was a sight that attracted one to it for hours: the roar of
the waters; the thousands of passenger fish, leaping at the falls with
all their might; the Wasoga and Waganda fishermen coming out in boats
and taking post on all the rocks, with rod and hook; hippopotami and
crocodiles lying sleepily on the water; the ferry at work above the
falls; and cattle driven down to drink at the margin of the lake, made
in all, with the pretty nature of the country,--small hills, grassy
topped, with trees in the folds and gardens on the lower slopes,--as
interesting a picture as one could wish.
"I saw that Old Father Nile, without any doubt, rises in the Victoria
Nyanza. As I had foretold, that lake is the great source of the holy
river which cradled the first expounder of our religious belief."
Speke had seen fully one-half of the lake, and had gained enough
information of the other half to feel assured that there was as much
water on the eastern side of the lake as on the western, possibly more.
The head of the Nile, or its most remote feeder, he found to be the
southern end of the lake. It gives to the Nile its surpassing length of
above two thousand and three hundred miles.
Speke was disappointed that he could not get an opportunity to visit the
northeast corner of the lake to find the connection, by means of a
strait, which he had heard described, between Lake Victoria Nyanza and
another lake, where the Waganda went to get their salt.
He discovered that from the southern point of the lake, on the west
side, to the point where the great Nile stream issues, there is only one
river of any great importance, while from the most southern point,
round by the east to the strait, there are no large rivers.
The Arab travelers assured him that from the west of the snow-clad peak
of Kilimanjaro to the lake, at the point where the first and second
degrees of south latitude cut it, there were salt lakes and plains, in
the midst of a hilly country. They further told him that there were no
great rivers; that the country was but scantily watered, with only
occasional rills and rivulets, and that they were compelled to make long
marches to get water, when they started out upon their trading journeys.
Speke could not quite believe in the existence of a salt lake. His
experience had taught him that the natives call all lakes salt if they
find salt beds or salt islands in their vicinity.
Lake Victoria Nyanza he found to be nearly four thousand feet above sea
level, or nearly two thousand feet above the altitude of Lake
Tanganyika. It was plain to him, therefore, that there could be no
connection between the two lakes.
Some notes from the journal kept by Speke are of interest here. "The
first affluent, the Bahr-el-Gazal, took us by surprise. Instead of
finding a large lake, as described in our maps, as an elbow of the Nile,
we found only a small piece of water resembling a duck pond, buried in a
sea of rushes. The old Nile swept through it with majestic grace, and
carried us next to the Geraffe branch of the Sobat River, the second
affluent, which we found flowing into the Nile with a graceful
semi-circular sweep and good stiff current, apparently deep, but not
more than fifty yards broad.
"Next in order came the main stream of the Sobat, flowing into the Nile
in the same graceful way as the Geraffe, which in breadth it surpassed,
but in velocity it was inferior.
"Next to be treated of is the famous Blue Nile, which we found a
miserable river, even when compared with the Geraffe branch of the
Sobat. It is very broad at the mouth, it is true, but so shallow that
our vessel with difficulty was able to come up to it. It had all the
appearance of a mountain stream, subject to great periodical
fluctuations.
"The Atbara River, which is the last affluent, was more like the Blue
River than any of the other affluents, being decidedly a mountain
stream, which floods the country in the rains, but runs nearly dry in
the dry season.
"I had now seen quite enough to satisfy myself that the White Nile,
which issues from Victoria Nyanza at the Ripon Falls, is the true or
parent Nile."