We Shortly
Ascended A Rocky Mountain By A Stony And Difficult Pass, And Upon
Arrival At The Summit, About 800
Feet above the Nile, which lay in front
at about two miles' distance, we halted to enjoy the magnificent view.
"Hurrah for the old Nile!" I exclaimed, as I revelled in the scene
before me: here it was, fresh from its great parent, the Albert lake, in
all the grandeur of Africa's mightiest river. From our elevated point we
looked down upon a broad sheet of unbroken water, winding through marshy
ground, flowing from W.S.W. The actual breadth of clear water,
independent of the marsh and reedy banks, was about 400 yards, but, as
usual in the deep and flat portions of the White Nile, the great extent
of reeds growing in deep water rendered any estimate of the positive
width extremely vague. We could discern the course of this great river
for about twenty miles, and distinctly, trace the line of mountains on
the west bank that we had seen at about sixty miles' distance when on
the route from Karuma to Shooa; the commencement of this chain we had
seen when at Magungo, forming the Koshi frontier of the Nile. The
country opposite to the point on which we now stood was Koshi, which,
forming the west bank of the Nile, extended the entire way to the Albert
lake. The country that we occupied was Madi, which extended as the east
bank of the Nile to the angle of the Victoria Nile (or Somerset river)
junction opposite Magungo. These two countries, Koshi and Madi, we had
seen from Magungo when we had viewed the exit of the Nile from the lake,
as though a tail-like continuation of the water, until lost in the
distance of the interminable valley of high reeds. Having, from Magungo,
in lat. 2 degrees l6 minutes, looked upon the course of the river far to
the north, and from the high pass, our present point, in lat. 3 degrees
34 min. N., we now comprised an extensive view of the river to the
south; the extremities of the limits of view from north and south would
almost meet, and leave a mere trifle of a few miles not actually
inspected.
Exactly opposite the summit of the pass from which we now scanned the
country, rose the precipitous mountain known as Gebel Kookoo, which rose
to a height of about 2,500 feet above the level of the Nile, and formed
the prominent feature of a chain which bordered the west bank of the
Nile with few breaks to the north, until within thirty miles of
Gondokoro. The pass upon which we stood was the southern extremity of a
range of high rocky hills that formed the east cliff of the Nile; thus
the broad and noble stream that arrived from the Albert lake in a sheet
of unbroken water received the Un-y-Ame river, and then suddenly entered
the pass between the two chains of hills, - Gebel Kookoo on the west,
and the ridge that we now occupied upon the east.
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