PREFACE.
T h e work entitled “ The Albert N’yanza Great Basin
of the Nile,” published in 1866, has given an account
of the equatorial lake system, from which the Egyptian
river derives its source. It has been determined by
the joint explorations of Speke, Grant, and myself,
that the rainfall of the equatorial districts supplies
two vast lakes, the Victoria and the Albert, of sufficient
volume to support the Nile throughout its entire
course of thirty degrees of latitude. Thus the parent
stream, fed by never-failing reservoirs, supplied by the
ten months’ rainfall of the equator, rolls steadily on its
way through arid sands and burning deserts until it
reaches the Delta of Lower Egypt.
b 2
