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."