- "The Drainage Clearly Did Not Go Into Tanganyika, And That
Lake, Though It Probably Has An Outlet, Lost All Its Interest To Me As A
Source Of The River Of Egypt."
We are, therefore completely in the dark concerning the flow of water
from the Lualaba south of the equator, and of Schweinfurth's Welle north
of the equator, but both these large rivers were tending to the same
direction, north-west.
The discovery of these two rivers in about the
same meridian is a satisfactory proof of the western watershed, which
completely excludes them from the Nile Basin. If the Tanganyika lake has
no communication with the Albert N'yanza, the old Nile is the simple
offspring of the two parents - the Victoria and the Albert lakes.
(This is now proved to be the case.)
When the steamer that I left at Gondokoro in sections shall be launched
upon the Albert N'yanza, this interesting question will be quickly
solved.
Early in November, 1871, when I was on the Nile south of Regiaf, I
noticed the peculiar change that suddenly took place in the river. We
were then in N. lat. 4 degrees 38", below the last cataracts, where the
water was perfectly clear and free from vegetation, with a stream of
about three and a half or four miles per hour.
Suddenly the river became discoloured by an immense quantity of the
Pistia Stratiotes, of which not one plant was entire.
This aquatic plant invariably grows in either dead water or in the most
sluggish stream, and none existed in the part of the river at N. lat.
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