LAKE SCENERY IN CENTRAL AFRICA.
"No one can doubt that this is the source of the Nile," said Fred, "if he is familiar with the water of the river, and then drinks from the lake. The taste, or rather the sweetness, is exactly the same."
"Yes," answered Frank, "and the Persian conqueror who forbade his soldiers to ask for wine when the water of the Nile could be procured would have included that of the Victoria N'yanza, if he had known of its existence."
"And they wouldn't have been restricted in the least," replied Fred, "as all the armies of the world might drink from the lake without affecting it. Twenty thousand square miles of water ought to be a good source of supply."
Frank was looking over the side of the boat, and suddenly spied a large fish darting away, as if frightened by the strange apparition of the craft above him.
Of course this incident roused the curiosity of the youths to know something of the finny products of the lake. Ali questioned the boatmen, and learned that there were several kinds of fishes in the lake. Some of them grew so large that it took two men to handle one of them, and it sometimes happened that a man who grappled a fish of this sort was dragged under water by it.
The boatmen said there was another fish in the lake, which occasionally grew to the size of a boy. Frank intimated that it was important to know what size of boy was referred to. It might be anywhere from five pounds up to two hundred-weight—a very wide margin on which to base a calculation.