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NAVIGATION OF THE ALBERT NYANZA.

THE successful exploration of the Albert Nyanza is, after the navigation of the Victoria Nyanza by Stanley, and the discovery of the river Congo outlet by Cameron, one of the most important additions made to the geography of Central Africa since the first discovery of the lakes by our own gallant countryman.

The exploration was due to the initiative of Colonel Gordon, M. Romolo Gessi, the successful navigator, being upon the Colonel's staff, and the boats with which the exploration was effected were brought up by the commander of the expedition.

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M. Gessi started with two boats from Duffili, on the Upper Nile, on the 8th of March, accompanied by the well-known Italian traveller, Piaggia, and a crew of Arabs, and he reached Magungo, on the Albert Nyanza, on the 30th of the same month. From this point, he visited the falls of Naruma (or Murchison Falls), which are not far distant; and the point below the falls appears, as we had previously heard from Sir Samuel Baker, their discoverer, to a very extraordinary place; for the noise made at night-time by the hippopotami, crocodiles, great fish, and beasts of prey, was so great as to almost drown the sound of the falling waters. Piaggia quitted the boats at this place to explore the course of the Victoria Nile, so we may soon expect further information as to the extent and character of Lake Ibrahim, discovered by Long Bey, between the Victoria Nyanza and the Albert Nyanza. Colonel Gordon's defeat and expulsion of Raba Rega, the hostile king of Unyoro, or Kittara, will, to a great extent, deprive this exploration of its previous difficulties and dangers.

Gessi started, on the 12th of April, to circumnavigate the Albert Nyanza, and he was nine days in carrying out his purpose. The details which have as yet reached us are very meagre, but of great importance. It appears that the lake is in reality only 140 miles in length by 50 in breadth : so that Speke's first designation of the "little Luta Nziga," is not, after all, so far wrong. On the eastern side there are some available harbours,* but on the western shores the mountains come down abruptly to the water. No great river (always excepting the Victoria Nile) was found flowing into

* Mr. Stanley, who appears to have marched from King Mtesa's capital, across country to the Albert Nyanza at the head of his own force and 2000 spearmen of Uganda, and pitched his camp upon the shores of the lake at a place called Unyampaka, named one of these large inlets, where he was camped, "Peatrice Gulf," after Her Royal Highness Princess Beatrice. Mr. Stanley, when last heard of, was marching towards Ujiji, whence he proposed

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NAVIGATION OF THE ALBERT NYANZA.

THE successful exploration of the Albert Nyanza is, after the navigation of the Victoria Nyanza by Stanley, and the discovery of the river Congo outlet by Cameron, one of the most important additions made to the geography of Central Africa since the first discovery of the lakes by our own gallant countryman.

The exploration was due to the initiative of Colonel Gordon, M. Romolo Cessi, the successful navigator, being upon the Colonel's staff, and the boats with which the exploration was effected were brought up by the commander of the expedition.

M. Gessi started with two boats from Duffili, on the Upper Nile, on the 8th of March, accompanied by the well-known Italian traveller, Piaggia, and a crew of Arabs, and he reached Magungo, on the Albert Nyanza, on the 30th of the same month. From this point, he visited the falls of Naruma (or Murchison Falls), which are not far distant; and the point below the falls appears, as we had previously heard from Sir Samuel Baker, their discoverer, to be a very extraordinary place; for the noise made at night-time by the hippopotami, crocodiles, great fish, and beasts of prey, was so great as to almost drown the sound of the falling waters. Piaggia quitted the boats at this place to explore the course of the Victoria Nile, so we may soon expect further information as to the extent and character of Lake Ibrahim, discovered by Long Bey, between the Victoria Nyanza and the Albert Nyanza. Colonel Gordon's defeat and expulsion of Raba Rega, the hostile king of Unyoro, or Kittara, will, to a great extent, deprive this exploration of its previous difficulties and dangers.

Gessi started, on the 12th of April, to circumnavigate the Albert Nyanza, and he was nine days in carrying out his purpose. The details which have as yet reached us are very meagre, but of great importance. It appears that the lake is in reality only 140 miles in length by 50 in breadth so that Speke's first designation of the "little Luta Nziga," is not, after all, so far wrong. On the eastern side there are some available harbours,* but on the western shores the mountains come down abruptly to the water. No great river (always excepting the Victoria Nile) was found flowing into

* Mr. Stanley, who appears to have marched from King Mtesa's capital, across country to the Albert Nyanza at the head of his own force and 2000 spearmen of Uganda, and pitched his camp upon the shores of the lake at a place called Unyampaka, named one of these large inlets, where he was camped, "Teatrice Gulf," after Her Royal Highness Princess Beatrice. Mr. Stanley, when last heard of, was marching towards Ujiji, whence he proposed

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the lake; so Sir Samuel Baker must have been misled by play of light when he fanciel that he saw, from his standpoint near Magungo, great rivers flowing into the lake from the opposite distant coast. The expedition encountered strong gusts of wind, and had at times to struggle against a heavy sea, which terrified the Arabs, accustomed only to river navigation; but Gessi, who had navigated the Black Sea, carried them through in safety; and the boats, built by Samuda, proved themselves to be in every way effective.

The southern extremity of the lake was low, and covered with forests, chiefly of the ambatch plant, which flourishes only in eighteen inches to two feet of water. The explorer did not see any junction between the mountains on the east of the lake and those on the west at this point, and he therefore came to the conclusion that there may be, as Sir Samuel Baker was informed, a chain of lakes and marshes extending between Tanganyika and Like Albert. Part of this district may, indeed, have been inundated in Sir Samuel Baker's time, if the eye could penetrate such remote distances, whence the extent which he gave approximatively to the lake.

Captain Burton, who has always held, with Sir Samuel Baker, to the theory of a communication between the two lakes--at all events at certain seasons of the year-still advocates upon this (in a letter to the Athenæum, No. 2543), that Tanganyika is a lake with two outlets, but that the outlet to Albert Nyanza is blocked up by papyrus and other plants. On the other hand, Dr. Behm writes, with a sketch of Gessi's of the Upper Nile, from Duffili to Lake Albert, forwarded to the Geographical Society of Paris (July 5, 1876), that, contrary to the opinions advanced by Burton and Baker, there is positively no communication whatever with Tanganyika.

It is obvious that if such communication exists, even only at the period of flood, and as information to that effect was obtained from the Arabs, there is still much probability in its favour; the sources of the Nile would be where Livingstone first reached a northerly water-shed at Moi Tawa, north of Lake Nyassa. But if no such communication exists, these sources must lie at the head of Stanley's Shimūyū; its tributaries—the Monunguh, Luwamberri, and Duma rivers, flowing from the eastern slopes or spurs of the snow

to re-visit the Albert Nyanza by way of Lake Tanganyika. This is just one of the points which it is most desirable to settle satisfactorily and finally. Mr. Stanley certainly deserves the highest credit for his pluck and perseverance in exploring the Lake Regions, and for the ability shown in holding his own among hostile savages without assistance from any government whatsoever.

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