s of geographical importance were
concerned.

Let us now sum up the whole and see what it is worth. Comparative
information assured me that there was as much water on the eastern side
of the lake as there is on the western--if anything, rather more. The
most remote waters, or top head of the Nile, is the southern end of the
lake, situated close on the third degree of south latitude, which gives
to the Nile the surprising length, in direct measurement, rolling over
thirty-four degrees of latitude, of above 2300 miles, or more than
one-eleventh of the circumference of our globe. Now from this southern
point, round by the west, to where the great Nile stream issues, there
is only one feeder of any importance, and that is the Kitangule river;
whilst from the southernmost point, round by the east, to the strait,
there are no rivers at all of any importance; for the travelled Arabs
one and all aver, that from the west of the snow-clad Kilimandjaro to
the lake where it is cut by the second degree, and also the first degree
of south latitude, there are salt lakes and salt plains, and the country
is hilly, not unlike Unyamuezi; but they said there were no great
rivers, and the country was so scantily watered, having only occasional
runnels and rivulets, that they always had to make long marches in order
to find water when they went on their trading journeys: and further,
those Arabs who crossed the strait when they reached Usoga, as mentioned
before, during the late interregnum, crossed no river either.

There remains to be disposed of the "salt lake," which I believe is not
a salt, but a fresh-water lake; and my reasons are, as before stated,
that the natives call all lakes salt, if they find salt beds or salt
islands in such places. Dr Krapf, when he obtained a sight of the Kenia
mountain, heard from the natives there that there was a salt lake to
its northward, and he also heard that a river ran from Kenia towards the
Nile. If his information was true on this latter point, then, without
doubt, there must exist some connection between his river and the salt
lake I have heard of, and this in all probability would also establish
a connection between my salt lake and his salt lake which he heard was
called Baringo. [22] In no view that can be taken of it, however, does
this unsettled matter touch the established fact that the head of the
Nile is in 3 deg. south latitude, where in the year 1858, I discovered the
head of the Victo