The Boy Travellers in the Far East, Part Fifth / Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey through Africa

by Thomas Wallace Knox

"You know what the showman said when the little girl asked which were the monkeys and which the hyenas?"

"Yes," said Frank: "'Whichever you please, my dear. You pays your money, and you takes your choice.'"

"It is somewhat that way with the origin of the Nile," answered the Doctor. "If the Victoria N'yanza is the source of the great river, you can give the credit of its discovery to Captain Speke; and if the outlet of the lake is technically the head of the river, the honor is divided between Speke and Grant. If the Albert N'yanza, and not the Victoria, is the source of the Nile—since the Bahr-el-Abiad, or White Nile, issues from it—then you must set Speke and Grant aside and award the palm of merit to Sir Samuel Baker."

"But how about the rivers that flow into the Victoria N'yanza?" said Fred. "There must be several affluents of the lake, and the largest and longest of them might be called the true source of the Nile."

"That is a matter which is not yet fully determined," was the reply. "Stanley circumnavigated the Victoria N'yanza in 1875, and found several streams flowing into it; but, as they have not all been traced to their sources, we cannot say with exactness which is the longest. Until this point is settled there will be a question in the minds of some very exact people as to the source of the Nile, but for all practical purposes the matter is determined already. To my way of thinking the Victoria N'yanza is the source of the Nile; and it is hardly worth our while to consider the streams that feed it, unless one of them should be found to be larger than all the others, as in the case of the Somerset River, flowing into the Albert N'yanza.

KARUMA FALLS, ON THE VICTORIA NILE (SOMERSET RIVER).

"There is another lake, called Tanganyika, which lies south of the Victoria N'yanza, and was discovered by Burton and Speke in February, 1858. It was supposed that this lake discharged into the Victoria N'yanza, and this supposition was sustained by Dr. Livingstone against the opinions of other geographers. It is known that the level of Tanganyika is lower than the Victoria and Albert lakes, and therefore it cannot be the source of the Nile."

The conversation came to an end as the plank was put to the shore, and the party stepped from the boat in the country of the Shillooks.