99 CHAPTER XIT.

THE EXPLOBATlOiV OP THE ALBERT NYANZA.

The Albeit Xyanza— Shari or Congo? — Failure of Watson's and Chippendale's expeditions — Departure for the Albert Nyanza — The DujiU and the Magungo — Arrival at Dufile — Preparations for departure — Carlo Piaggia and Lake Kapeki — Seriba Bohit — Contrary winds — Thunderstorm — A Piringi killed — Seriba Bare — Water-plants — Inhabited shore — Difficult navigation— The Ardus tribe — The Nile flows from the Albert Lake.

While I was on tlie Bahr-el-Grhazal, Colonel Gordon attempted to solve the geographical problem of the Albert Lake. He wished to ascertain if this were the ultimate reservoir of the Nile, or whether it belonged to the hydrographical system of the Shari or the Congo.

As is already known, Sir Samuel Baker had, some time before, discovered the communication between the Victoria Nyanza and the Albert, that is, the Victoria Nile, and had maintained that to the north of this latter lake-basin there was an outflow which could be no other than the Nile between Dufile and Gondokoro.

But eminent geographers had doubted the existence of this northern channel, which Baker could not coniBrm, moreover, with his own eyes. They maintained that the Victoria Nile, issuing from the Victoria Nyanza, passed to the north-eastern side of the Albert Lake, without mixing its waters with the latter. In fact, in many maps drawn at this time, the course H 2