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."