The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin of the Nile - Samuel White Baker (paper ebook reader .TXT) 📗

class="calibre1">The lake at this point was between fifteen and twenty miles across, and

the appearance of the country to the north was that of a delta. The

shores upon either side were choked with vast banks of reeds, and as the

canoe skirted the edge of that upon the east coast, we could find no

bottom with a bamboo of twenty-five feet in length, although the

floating mass appeared like terra forma. We were in a perfect wilderness

of vegetation: On the west were mountains of about 4,000 feet above the

lake level, a continuation of the chain that formed the western shore

from the south: these mountains decreased in height towards the north,

in which direction the lake terminated in a broad valley of reeds.

 

We were told that we had arrived at Magungo, and that this was the spot

where the boats invariably crossed from Malegga on the western shore to

Kamrasi’s country. The boatmen proposed that we should land upon the

floating vegetation, as that would be a short cut to the village or town

of Magungo; but as the swell of the water against the abrupt raft of

reeds threatened to swamp the canoe, I preferred coasting until we

should discover a good landing place. After skirting the floating reeds

for about a mile, we turned sharp to the east, and entered a broad

channel of water bounded on either side by the everlasting reeds. This

we were informed was the embouchure of the Somerset river from the

Victoria N’yanza. The same river that we had crossed at Karuma, boiling

and tearing along its rocky course, now entered the Albert N’yanza as

dead water! I could not understand this; there was not the slightest

current; the channel was about half a mile wide, and I could hardly

convince myself that this was not an arm of the lake branching to the

east. After searching for some time for a landing place among the

wonderful banks of reeds, we discovered a passage that had evidently

been used as an approach by canoes, but so narrow that our large canoe

could with difficulty be dragged through—all the men walking through

the mud and reeds, and towing with their utmost strength. Several

hundred paces of this tedious work brought us through the rushes into

open water, about eight feet deep, opposite to a clean rocky shore. We

had heard voices for some time while obscured on the other side of the

rushes, and we now found a number of natives, who had arrived to meet

us, with the chief of Magungo and our guide Rabonga, whom we had sent in

advance with the riding oxen from Vacovia. The water was extremely

shallow near the shore, and the natives rushed in and dragged the canoes

by sheer force over the mud to the land. We had been so entirely hidden

while on the lake on the other side of the reed bank that we had been

unable to see the eastern, or Magungo shore; we now found ourselves in a

delightful spot beneath the shade of several enormous trees on firm

sandy and rocky ground, while the country rose in a rapid incline to the

town of Magungo, about a mile distant, on an elevated ridge.

 

My first question was concerning the riding oxen. They were reported in

good order. We were invited to wait under a tree until the presents from

the headmen should be delivered. Accordingly, while my wife sat under

the shade, I went to the waterside to examine the fishing arrangements

of the natives, that were on an extensive scale. For many hundred feet,

the edges of the floating reeds were arranged to prevent the possibility

of a large fish entering the open water adjoining the shore without

being trapped. A regular system of baskets were fixed at intervals, with

guiding fences to their mouths. Each basket was about six feet in

diameter, and the mouth about eighteen inches; thus the arrangements

were for the monsters of the lake, the large bones of which, strewed

about the vicinity, were a witness of their size. My men had just

secured the half of a splendid fish, known in the Nile as the “baggera.”

They had found it in the water, the other portion having been bitten off

by a crocodile. The piece in their possession weighed about fifty

pounds. This is one of the best fish in the lake. It is shaped like the

perch, but is coloured externally like the salmon. I also obtained from

the natives an exceedingly good fish, of a peculiar form, having four

long feelers at the positions that would be occupied by the limbs of

reptiles; these looked like rudiments of legs. It had somewhat the

appearance of an eel; but, being oviparous, it can have no connexion

with that genus. The natives had a most killing way of fishing with the

hook and line for heavy fish. They arranged rows of tall bamboos, the

ends stuck firmly in the bottom, in a depth of about six feet of water,

and about five or ten yards apart. On the top of each was a lump of

ambatch-wood about ten inches in diameter. Around this was wound a

powerful line, and, a small hole being made in this float, it was

lightly fixed upon the point of the bamboo, or fishing rod. The line was

securely attached to the bamboo, then wound round the large float, while

the hook, baited with a live fish, was thrown to some distance beyond.

Long rows of these fixed rods were set every morning by natives in

canoes, and watchers attended them during the day, while they took their

chance by night. When a large fish took the bait, his first rush

unhitched the ambatch-float from the point of the bamboo, which,

revolving upon the water, paid out line as required. When entirely run

out, the great size and buoyancy of the float served to check and to

exhaust the fish. There are several varieties of fish that exceed 200

lbs. weight.

 

A number of people now arrived from the village, bringing a goat, fowls,

eggs, and sour milk, and, beyond all luxuries, fresh butter. I delighted

the chief, in return for his civility, by giving him a quantity of

beads, and we were led up the hill towards Magungo.

 

The day was beautifully clear. The soil was sandy and poor, therefore

the road was clean and hard; and, after the many days’ boating, we

enjoyed the walk, and the splendid view that lay before us when we

arrived at Magungo, and looked back upon the lake. We were about 250

feet above the water level. There were no longer the abrupt cliffs,

descending to the lake, that we had seen in the south, but the general

level of the country appeared to be about 500 feet above the water, at a

distance of five or six miles, from which point the ground descended in

undulations, Magungo being situated on the summit of the nearest

incline. The mountains on the Malegga side, with the lake in the

foreground, were the most prominent objects, forming the western

boundary. A few miles north there appeared to be a gap in the range, and

the lake continued to the west, but much contracted, while the mountain

range on the northern side of the gap continued to the northeast. Due

north and northeast the country was a dead flat, and far as the eye

could reach was an extent of bright green reeds, marking the course of

the Nile as it made its exit from the lake. The sheet of water at

Magungo being about seventeen miles in width, ended in a long strip or

tail to the north, until it was lost in the flat valley of green rushes.

This valley may have been from four to six miles wide, and was bounded

upon its west bank by the continuation of the chain of mountains that

had formed the western boundary of the lake. The natives told me that

canoes could navigate the Nile in its course from the lake to the Madi

country, as there were no cataracts for a great distance, but that both

the Madi and the Koshi were hostile, and that the current of the river

was so strong, that should the canoe descend from the lake, it could not

return without many rowers. They pointed out the country of Koshi on the

west bank of the Nile, at its exit from the lake, which included the

mountains that bordered the river. The small country, M’Caroli, joined

Malegga, and continued to the west, towards the Makkarika. The natives

most positively refused to take me down the Nile from the lake into the

Madi, as they said that they would be killed by the people, who were

their enemies, as I should not be with them on their return up the

river.

 

The exit of the Nile from the lake was plain enough, and if the broad

channel of dead water were indeed the entrance of the Victoria Nile

(Somerset), the information obtained by Speke would be remarkably

confirmed. Up to the present time all the information that I had

received from Kamrasi and his people had been correct. He had told me

that I should be about twenty days from M’rooli to the lake; I had been

eighteen. He had also told me that the Somerset flowed from Karuma

direct to the lake, and that, having joined it, the great Nile issued

from the lake almost immediately, and flowed through the Koshi and Madi

tribes. I now saw the river issuing from the lake within eighteen miles

of Magungo; and the Koshi and the Madi countries appeared close to me,

bordering it on the west and east. Kamrasi being the king, it was

natural that he should know his own frontier most intimately; but,

although the chief of Magungo and all the natives assured me that the

broad channel of dead water at my feet was positively the brawling river

that I had crossed below the Karuma Falls, I could not understand how so

fine a body of water as that had appeared could possibly enter the

Albert lake as dead water. The guide and natives laughed at my unbelief,

and declared that it was dead water for a considerable distance from the

junction with the lake, but that a great waterfall rushed down from a

mountain, and that beyond that fall the river was merely a succession of

cataracts throughout the entire distance of about six days’ march to

Karuma Falls. My real wish was to descend the Nile in canoes from its

exit from the lake with my own men as boatmen, and thus in a short time

to reach the cataracts in the Madi country; there to forsake the canoes

and all my baggage, and to march direct to Gondokoro with only our guns

and ammunition. I knew from native report that the Nile was navigable as

far as the Madi country to about Miani’s tree, which Speke had laid down

by astronomical observation in lat. 3 degrees 34 minutes; this would be

only seven days’ march from Gondokoro, and by such a direct course I

should be sure to arrive in time for the boats to Khartoum. I had

promised Speke that I would explore most thoroughly the doubtful portion

of the river that he had been forced to neglect from Karuma Falls to the

lake. I was myself confused at the dead water junction; and, although I

knew that the natives must be right—as it was their own river, and

they had no inducement to mislead me—I was determined to sacrifice

every other wish in order to fulfil my promise, and thus to settle the

Nile question most absolutely. That the Nile flowed out of the lake I

had heard, and I had also confirmed