Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 2.djvu/358

 342 But, further, if unconnected with the eastern branch of the White Nile, of which the Albert Nyanza and the Victoria Nyanza are the feeders, does the Lualaba join the eastern branch either as the upper waters of Petherick's Bahr-el-Ghazel, or as one of its tributary streams? Against the first supposition it is urged that the source of this branch was discovered by the German traveller, Schweinfurth, 5 north of the equator. But it is maintained, in favor of the second, that the Uelle, a large feeder of the Bahr-el-Ghazel, was crossed by the same traveller, which, though certainly, where he saw it, flowing from east to west, was never traced to its source. He supposed it to rise in lat. 2 N., in the range of mountains west of the Albert Nyanza; but it is uncertain. The course of the Uelle may wind in such a manner as to account for the westward setting where Schweinfurth found it. Whether a greater difficulty exists in the fact that the two rivers lie at the same altitude of 2,000 feet, yet awaits the test of accurate observation. In the mean time, it is thought that the Lualaba may prove to be connected with the Uelle tributary, and thus enter the Nile by its western branch.

But even then the old mystery will not be solved. The Chambézi is not to monopolize the glory of giving rise to the great Egyptian river. Dr. Livingstone does not think so. On the 700th mile of the water-shed, are the fountains of the two rivers, Kafue and Leeambye, running south into the Zambesi. Near the same spot, the Lufira and Lomami (Lualaba) are said to have their source, flowing, as was seen, to the north. In the stoneless mound, or ant-hill according to some, on which these four fountains are reported to gush out, Livingstone is reminded of the information supplied to Ptolemy by ancient explorers, and of the description of the Nile sources given to Herodotus at Sais in Egypt. Will he be able, as he believes, to substantiate this record of antiquity, and in establishing his own theory of a dividing ridge-line between north and south—where Lake Dilolo (lat. 11° 32' 1" S.) may again have to be considered—find, after all, that, instead of a discovery, his labors may simply result in a rediscovery? And then as to Tanganyika and the Albert Nyanza. Dr. Livingstone and Stanley together proved that the first lake has no outlet at its northern end, and that the Rusizi a river with eighteen tributaries, coming from the small lake Kivo—is an inflowing stream, and not a drain. What will be done in this direction? What may be the result of discovering some other outlet from a lake extending over 360 miles of latitude, and this, too, when the Albert Nyanza to the south shall be no longer, as at present, unexplored?

For the solution of these questions, we must await the return of Dr. Livingstone himself, who is, by this time, we hope, once more among the waters of Rua and Manyema, with ample stores, and well attended. In two years, though probably more, he may be able to give us his own account. But, in prosecuting the researches, whose