The heart of Africa, Vol. 1 (of 2)Schweinfurth, Georg August
Science
The heart of Africa, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Schweinfurth, Georg August
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Schweinfurth, Georg August, 1836-1925 -- Travel -- Africa, Central
Let us for a moment review the impressions we have gained. The volume
of water brought by the Gazelle to swell the Nile is still an unsolved
problem. In the contention as to which stream is entitled to rank as
first-born among the children of the great river god, the
Bahr-el-Ghazal has apparently a claim in every way as valid as the
Bahr-el-Gebel. In truth, it would appear to stand in the same relation
to the Bahr-el-Gebel as the White Nile does to the Blue. At the season
when the waters are highest, the inundations of the Gazelle spread
over a very wide territory; about March, the time of year when they
are lowest, the river settles down, in its upper section, into a
number of vast pools of nearly stagnant water, whilst its lower
portion runs off into divers narrow and sluggish channels. These
channels, overgrown as they look with massy vegetation, conceal
beneath (either in their open depth, or mingled with the unfathomable
abyss of mud) such volumes of water as defy our reckoning. The Gazelle
then it is which gives to the White Nile a sufficient impetus to roll
its waters onward; subsequently the Bahr-el-Gebel finds its way and
contributes a more powerful element to the progress of the stream. It
must all along be borne in mind that there are besides two other
streams, the Dyoor and the Bahr-el-Arab, each of them more important
than any tributary of the Bahr-el-Gebel; and these bring in their own
influence. To estimate aright the true relation of all these various
tributaries is ever opening up the old question in a new light.
[Sidenote: THE KYT.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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