1883.
Dec. 1.
Stanley
Falls.
wards and upwards in safety, it is evident that there
are channels on the right bank which render the
passage feasible and even free of danger. They are
likely to be of the nature of Nile rapids on the right
side;. but on the extreme left the cataracts are decidedly
impassable.
At the seventh cataract there are four channels.
Beginning from the right bank there is a fordable
channel about thirty yards wide, which, at low water,
is the leakage between a ridge of loose rocks forming
a dam-like harrier at the upper end. The channel runs
for three miles between the right bank inhabited bythe
Bakumu, and an island occupied by the Wenya tribe
called Wane Rusari, or sons of Rusari. Beyond the
island, which is a quarter of a mile broad, is the main
right branch of the cataract, about 500 yards wide,
which is separated from the main left branch, 300 yards
wide, by a rocky islet occupying the centre. Below
the foot of the falls of the main left channel is a
rocky isle inhabited by the Wane Mikunga tribe of
the Wenya, separated from the mainland on the left
.bank by a rough channel about twenty yards wide.
From the right to the left bank at the cataract the
width, across islands and water, is about 1330 yards.
Between the two inhabited islands, Wane Rusari and
Wane Mikunga, the two main channels unite their
waters, and rush with inconceivable rapidity through a
narrowed channel of perhaps 450 yards, to he diffused
below over low reefs and rocky hollows covering a
breadth of 1200 yards. Two miles below the island
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