Page:The empire and the century.djvu/824

 of trees; but in almost every valley and cleft a glacier-fed stream tears down into the lake in a series of cascades of clear, icy-cold, and sparkling water.

The third and most northerly of the great reservoirs of the Nile is the Albert Nyanza, which, as has been explained, receives the waters of Lake Albert Edward, by means of the Semliki River. In shape the Albert Lake is long and narrow, and is chiefly remarkable for the grandeur of the mountains which confine its waters, like the walls of an immense rocky cistern. Looking across from the summit of the eastern cliffs, the panorama is a very striking one. The lake lies spread out a couple of thousand feet below, each bay, creek, and headland being distinctly visible in the clear atmosphere. On the western side tier upon tier of hills rises, one above the other, many of the peaks being of picturesquely irregular outline. The bases of the lower ranges are washed by the waves of this storm-haunted and desolate-looking lake. The eastern cliffs, like the plateau itself, are covered by thick bush, or forest, and descend almost perpendicularly to the flats below. The rivers which feed the Albert Nyanza, one and all, leap down the face of the escarpment in a series of grand waterfalls, some of the drops being many hundred feet in height.

Into the northern end of Lake Albert the Victoria Nile discharges itself, thus uniting the waters of the two great systems which together form the Nile sources. The actual outlet by which the river finally issues forth is situated a few miles to the north of this junction.

Before describing the course of the Nile, a few words regarding the different races which dwell within the land of its birth may not be out of place. If the scenery is varied, so also are the types of the inhabitants.

The north-eastern shore of Lake Victoria is the home of the Kavirondo, a tall, good-looking people, resembling the negro in nothing but the colour of their skin, and disdaining any attempt at clothing beyond a few beads. To the north of the Kavirondo country, on the Nandi