The Kagera is evidently a very copious stream, which during the rainy season overflows its banks for several miles, in a way that reminded Grant of the Hugli between Calcutta and Chandernagor. When Speke crossed it in January, 1862, that is, at low water, it was only 250 feet wide; but here it resembled a canal cut through dense masses of reeds, and was too deep for the boatmen to employ their poles. Its current is very rapid, running at least 3½ miles an hour and at its mouth forming a large estuary over 430 feet wide, and varying in depth from 80 to 130 feet. For several miles from the shore its dark grey stream continues to flow in a separate channel without intermingling with the blue waters of the lake.
The natives have a great veneration for their river, and one of the titles they give it seems to justify the hypothesis that it is really the main headstream of the Nile. According to Stanley they call it the "mother" of the "Stony Current," that is, of the emissary of Lake Nyanza in Uganda. At its north-west angle the lake is joined by the Kalonga, another copious river rising in the west in the neighbourhood of Lake Mwutan-Nzigé. Although it has a course of over 120 miles, its volume is certainly inferior to that of the Kagera.
Lake Victoria Nyanza.
The Nyanza, that is "lake" in a pre-eminent sense, known also as the Ukerewe, and now as the Victoria Nyanza, is the largest lacustrine basin in Africa. According to Stanley's provisional map, which will soon be superseded by the more matured work of Mackay, it is exceeded in superficial area only by one other lake—Superior, in North America.[1] Both Michigan and Huron are smaller by several thousand square miles; and Aral itself, although generally designated by the name of "Sea," appears to yield in extent to Nyanza.
In the depth of its waters also this vast basin rivals the great lacustrine cavities of the world. In the immediate neighbourhood of the east coast, and close to some islands and islets, the sounding line recorded a depth of 590 feet, which may probably be exceeded in the middle of the lake. Should this prove to be the case, Nyanza will take the first place amongst fresh-water basins for the volume of its liquid contents. Its altitude above the sea has been variously estimated by different observers, but 4,000 feet has been provisionally adopted as not far from the truth.
By Speke, who discovered it in 1858, this great inland sea has been named the Victoria Nyanza, in honour of the Queen of England. But every tribe along its shores gives it a different name, while the Swaheli of Zanzibar know it as the Bahari-ya-Pila, or "Second Sea." Many other names also occur in history which evidently have reference to this sheet of water. The title of Kerewe is taken from Ukerewe, the largest island on the south coast, which is separated from the mainland by the narrow strait of Rugeshi, a mere ditch almost completely choked by
- ↑ Area of the chief lakes of the world:—Superior, 33,500 square miles; Nyanza, 26,600; Aral, 26,300; Huron, 24,500; Michigan, 23.600; Erie, 11,300.
