Sir Samuel Baker, that he was given to understand the native name for the Lake was Sesseh. Petermann, in a comprehensive map published this autumn, has followed this mistake by calling the Lake Sessi See, as well as Ukerewe, and Victoria Nyanza. I explained that Sessch was a large island, and am glad to have my statement confirmed by Mr. Stanley, who has found it to be the largest island on the Lake. Various and numerous were the other islands seen by us, but they were nearly all uninhabited, and of no importance.

The greatest river on the route between the most southern point of the Lake, round its western and northern shores, is the Kitangule Kagora in the district of Karagweh. It rises probably from the foot of the conical mountain of M'f'oombiro, supposed by us to be 10,000 feet high; numerous lakes and valleys send their waters to it. In appearance it has a slow, majestic, winding course, which is navigable for 30 to 40 miles from its mouth; vessels drawing 25 feet of water could, I believe, float at the ferry where we crossed. Speke and I had to conjecture this depth at the ferry, because we were forcibly prevented from dropping our lead-lines into it the King would not be pleased; it was not "canny" to take soundings.

I should not be the least surprised to hear that Mr. Stanley selects this noble river as a point for exploration. With the Lady Alice he can ascend this stream from the Lake up almost to King Rumanika's door; or he can cross over the mountains of Ruanda and Urundi and descend to the spot on Lake Tanganyika, where Livingstone and he had such a pleasant pic-nic; or he may select the Albert Nyanza as his field for exploration. All will be new to us; either route would interest geographers intensely, for the country, its people, and its animals are all unknown.

Leaving the River Kitangule, and proceeding north to the capital of Uganda, a distance of 125 geographical miles, we counted five-and-twenty streams, varying in depth from 3 to 10 feet, which we waded, swam, or crossed by bridge; there were numerous other smaller ones which would not give trouble even when flooded. They were mud-coloured and mud-sidedswamp-rivers, in fact.

The area of the Lake, according to Speke, who took latitudes and longitudes for its western half, and only had native information for the other half, is 645 geographical miles in circumference; and if we add to this the circumference of Lake Bahr-ingo, now said to form a portion of the Lake, we have 910 geographical miles. Speke, therefore, after his last journey in 1860-3, made the Victoria Nyanza out to be of an area not

Sir Samuel Baker, that he was given to understand the native name for the Lake was Sesseh. Petermann, in a comprehensive map published this autumn, has followed this mistake by calling the Lake Sessi See, as well as Ukerewe, and Victoria Nyanza. I explained that Sessch was a large island, and am glad to have my statement confirmed by Mr. Stanley, who has found it to be the largest island on the Lake. Various and numerous were the other islands seen by us, but they were nearly all uninhabited, and of no importance.

The greatest river on the route between the most southern point of the Lake, round its western and northern shores, is the Kitangule Kagora in the district of Karagweh. It rises probably from the foot of the conical mountain of M'f'oombiro, supposed by us to be 10,000 feet high; numerous lakes and valleys send their waters to it. In appearance it has a slow, majestic, winding course, which is navigable for 30 to 40 miles from its mouth; vessels drawing 25 feet of water could, I believe, float at the ferry where we crossed. Speke and I had to conjecture this depth at the ferry, because we were forcibly prevented from dropping our lead-lines into it: the King would not be pleased; it was not "canny" to take soundings.

I should not be the least surprised to hear that Mr. Stanley selects this noble river as a point for exploration. With the Lady Alice he can ascend this stream from the Lake up almost to King Rumanika's door; or he can cross over the mountains of Ruanda and Urundi and descend to the spot on Lake Tanganyika, where Livingstone and he had such a pleasant pic-nic; or he may select the Albert Nyanza as his field for exploration. All will be new to us; either route would interest geographers intensely, for the country, its people, and its animals are all unknown.

Leaving the River Kitangule, and proceeding north to the capital of Uganda, a distance of 125 geographical miles, we counted five-and-twenty streams, varying in depth from 3 to 10 feet, which we waded, swam, or crossed by bridge; there were numerous other smaller ones which would not give trouble even when flooded. They were mud-coloured and mud-sidedswamp-rivers, in fact.

The area of the Lake, according to Speke, who took latitudes and longitudes for its western half, and only had native information for the other half, is 645 geographical miles in circumference; and if we add to this the circumference of Lake Bahr-ingo, now said to form a portion of the Lake, we have 910 geographical miles. Speke, therefore, after his last journey in 1860-3, made the Victoria Nyanza out to be of an area not

equal to Lake Superior, which is 1500 miles in circumference, but parallel in size with Huron (600) and Erie (650).

You naturally ask how Speke came to make the Lake the size it has proved to be. There was no theory in his statement, as you will allow when I state that, at Muanza, along the west side, and on the north, he had taken its latitude, longitude, and altitude. Native travellers had gone, by water, from Ukereweh to Kitangule, and onwards to the capital of Uganda, also onwards to Baringo. We travelled by the western side, where the country is without mountains, low and swampy; and when Captain Speke got to the Ripon Falls, the natives told him there was as much water, from where he stood, to the East, as there was to Katonga Bay in the West, where he lately came from. Therefore it was by these measurements that he made the Lake the size it has proved to be by Mr. Stanley.

The only point where water was observed to leave the Lake was at Ripon Falls, in Uganda. Here the body of water is 150 yards wide-the depth was not calculated-but this quantity bears but a small proportion to the contents of the Lake. As to the depth of the Lake, I am inclined to the belief that Stanley's measurement will show it as a comparatively shallow body of water, resting on a vast plateau; that there is no chasm such as Tanganyika is formed of. Stanley has given us only one measurement for depth-275 feet, and had not taken the centre of the Lake. The Nile, after leaving the Lake at Ripon Falls, has a navigable course to the Karuma Falls. From here to the Albert Nyanza its course is through rock and over high falls. We have yet to learn the exact position of the river as it leaves the Albert; but it is again navigable from this to Apuddo, the village near Miani's tree; hence it again foams over rocks for some distance, and at intervals, as it runs below,. and north of the Jubl Kookoo Mountain range. Colonel Gordon has, however, found it navigable farther up from Gondokoro than was suspected, namely, up to 12 miles south of Regiaf, whence all the way to Egypt during high Nile for 1620 geographical miles there is no obstruction to a boat drawing 5 or 6 feet of water.

Many will remember the enthusiastic reception given in old Burlington House where Speke and I were received after telegraphing that the "Nile was settled;" that "the Victoria Nyanza was the source of the Nile." Such a reception certainly awaits Mr. Stanley when he appears here; and if he should make more discoveries-which he undoubtedly will if God spares him -there is no honour which this Society can bestow that he will not have earned over and over again. He, as an observer, a traveller in its true sense, a provider of true and pleasant pic

tures from unknown lands, has confirmed the discoveries made by Speke, and to him the merit is due of having sailed on the broad waters of the Lake, and sent home a map, and descriptions so vivid and truthful that the most sceptical cannot fail to be satisfied.

Here it may be as well to explain that some geographers never accepted Speke's Lake as one great ocean, although the geographical world did. The foremost of unbelievers, and the one who appeared first in the field, was Captain Burton, the companion at one time of Speke. He did not seem to have any reason for his argument. He said there must be several lakes, lagoons; anything, in fact, except the Lake. Even the late Dr. Livingstone and Mr. Stanley made out there must be several lakes. Livingstone wrote in a very patronising tone, "Poor Speke has turned his back upon the real sources of the Nile" his river at Ripon Falls was not large enough for the Nile"-and was disparaging of Speke's discoveries. The work of Dr. Schweinfurth, The Heart of Africa,' has fallen into the greatest blunder. Also, nearly three years ago, a map, constructed by Mr. Keith Johnston, without authority, in our map-room, was suspended from these walls, but, on my protest, the President Sir Henry Rawlinson ordered that it be altered to the delineation of the Lake by Speke. This was done.

6

Numbers of other writers and map-makers, Continental and English, have gone on disintegrating the Lake from book to book, map to map, and from year to year; but I think the public will now perceive how unjust the above critics have been, how firmly the fame of Speke has been established, and will not fail to accord him that place in their opinions which he may have lost for a time.

The following published maps exhibit the Victoria Nyanza divided into two or more lakes:

The Nile Basin,' by Richard F. Burton, 1864. Coast-line delineated only at south extremity of Lake, and the south side of the islands Kerewe and Mazita; from the Kitangule River to the Katonga: at Murchison Creek; at Napoleon Channel. Between these is placed the words "Supposed site of Victoria Nyanza." Bahari 'Ngo made a distinct lake.

Lake Region of Eastern Africa,' by A. Keith Johnston; 2nd edition, 1872. Victoria Nyanza, a continuous coast-line from Napoleon Channel, along N. and W. sides to Urundi on E. coast; coloured only as water at the S. extremity, and round the islands Kerewe and Mazita; from a little S. of Kitangule River to a short distance E. of the Katonga; about Murchison Creek; about Napoleon Channel. The eastern side made a