The lake region of Africa stretches from the head waters of the upper
Nile three degrees south, to the waters of the Zambezi, fifteen degrees
south,--a lake region unequalled, in extent and volume of water, except
by our lakes. Here is the Victoria Nyanza, the queen of inland seas,
4,000 feet above the sea-level; and a long series of lakes, great and
small, at equal elevation. The more striking are Bangweolo to the
south-west, the grave of Livingstone, and Nyassa on the south-east. In
their depths the Nile, the Kongo River, and the Shire (the main branch
of the Zambezi) have their source.
The great belt of equatorial Africa, situated between the 15th parallel
of north latitude and the 15th parallel of south latitude, has
continuous rains, is everywhere well watered, and has a rich and
fertile soil. Some portions are thickly populated, and it is capable of
sustaining a dense population. North and south of this belt there are
two other belts of nearly equal width. In each of these belts there are
wet and dry seasons, with abundant rain for the crops. The heaviest
rainfall in the north belt is in June, while in the south belt it is in
December. The rainfall gradually grows less toward the north, and also
toward the south, until it ceases in the Desert of Sahara on the north,
and in the Desert of Kalahari on the south. On the edge of these
deserts are Lake Chad on the north, and Lake Ngami on the south. North
of the Desert of Sahara, and south of the Desert of Kalahari, there is
an abundant rainfall, a healthy climate, and fertile soil. Morocco,
Algiers, and Tripoli, on the Mediterranean, are in the north region;
and Zulu-Land, the Orange Free State, and Cape Colony, in the
corresponding region of the south.
That portion of Africa north of the equator is three or four times
greater than that south, and the Sahara Desert and Lake Chad are
several times greater than the Kalahari Desert and Lake Ngami. The
Sahara Desert, the waterless ocean three times as large as the
Mediterranean, extends from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea, broken
only by the narrow valley of the Nile. It is interspersed with oases,
with the valleys of many dry streams, and with some mountains 8,000
feet. It has the hottest climate in the world. Travelers tell us, that,
in upper Egypt and Nubia, eggs may be baked in the hot sands; that the
soil is like fire, and the wind like a flame; that in other parts of
the desert the sand on the rocks is sometimes heated to 200° in the
day-time, while in the following night the thermometer falls below
freezing-point. In crossing the desert the traveler will hardly need a
guide, for the road is too clearly marked by the bones and skeletons
that point the way.
Lake Chad receives the drainage of a considerable area of country. In
the dry season it has no outlet, and is then about the size of Lake
Erie. In the wet season it is said to be five times as large. Its level
rises by twenty or thirty feet until it overflows into the Desert of
Sahara, forming a stream which runs northward for several hundred
miles, and is finally lost in a great depressed plain. In the southern
part of Africa the level of Lake Ngami rises and falls in a similar
manner.
Through the great equatorial belt runs the Kongo, one of the wonderful
rivers of the world. The more we know of this river and its
tributaries, the more we are impressed by its greatness and importance.
Its principal source is in the mountain-range which separates Lake
Nyassa from Lake Tanganyika, between 300 and 400 miles west of the
Indian Ocean; thence it runs southerly through Lake Bangweolo. On
leaving this lake, it takes a north-west course, running from 12° south
latitude to 2° north latitude, thence running south-westerly to the
ocean, nearly 3,000 miles. The river Sankuru, its principal tributary,
empties into the Kongo some distance above Stanley Pool on the south.
The mouths of the Sankuru were discovered by Stanley, who was struck by
the size and beauty of the river, and by the lakes which probably
connect it by a second outlet with the Kongo; but he little realized
the magnitude of the river. Even before the journey of Stanley,
Portuguese explorers had crossed several large streams far to the south
of the Kongo,--the Kuango, the Kassai, and the Lomami,--and explored
them for several hundred miles, but were unable to follow them to their
mouths. In 1885 and 1886, Wissman and the Belgian explorers sailed up
the Sankuru to the streams discovered by the Portuguese. The next
largest branch is the Obangi, now called the Obangi-Welle, which flows
into the Kongo on the westerly side of the continent, a little south of
the equator. An expedition organized by the Kongo Free State steamed up
this river in the winter of 1887 and 1888, and solved the problem so
long discussed, of the outlet of the Welle. The expedition left the
Kongo in the steamer "En Avant," October 26, 1887. It passed several
rapids, and steamed to 21° 55' east longitude, when it was stopped by
the "En Avant" running on a rock, and the opposition of hostile
natives. Here it was only 66 miles from the westernmost point on the
Welle reached by Junker, and in the same latitude, each stream running
in the same direction, leaving no room to doubt that the two waters
unite.
The Little Kibali, which rises a little to the west of Wadelai in the
mountains of Sudan, is the initial branch of this river, which bears
successively the name of "Kibali" "Welle" and "Doru," and empties into
the Kongo under the name of "Obangi," after a course of 1,500 miles.
The discharge of water from the Kongo is only a little less than that
from the Amazon, and is said to be three times as great as the
discharge from the Mississippi. Grenfel, the English missionary and
traveler, says there is no part of the Kongo basin more than one
hundred miles from navigable water. What the railroad does for America,
the steamboat will do for the Kongo Free State on its seventy-two
hundred miles of navigable water.