about the Nile system, and it was thought that the Victoria Nile discovered by Speke did not enter Lake Albert, but in some tortuous way joined the Asua, and so flowed on past Gondokoro, leaving Lake Albert altogether out of its system. [Illustration: THE VICTORIA NILE FLOWING TOWARDS LAKE KIOGA.] To settle these doubts, Gordon resolved to despatch Romolo Gessi,[92] who was then little more than a steamer engineer, though, having been the mate of a Mediterranean steamer, he was able to take astronomical observations. Gessi was therefore instructed to circumnavigate Lake Albert. This task he carried out in 1876. He ascertained positively that the Victoria Nile entered Lake Albert and left it again, and he connected his rough survey of the Albertine Nile with the work which was being carried on up stream from Gondokoro by two English engineer officers in Gordon’s employ, Lieutenants Watson[93] and Chippendall. In 1877 Colonel Mason (an American) took advantage of the first steamer being placed on Lake Albert to make a survey rather more careful than that of Gessi, but neither of these explorers ascertained the existence of the Semliki River or of the snow-range of Ruwenzori, though it is said that in some of Gessi’s private letters mention was made of a strange apparition “like snow-mountains” in the sky, which had appeared to some of his men at the south end of Lake Albert,--a remark that attracted no attention at the time. Gessi also records having seen the mouth of a large river at the south end of Lake Albert, but it never seems to have occurred to him that this river was probably of the greatest geographical interest. Nevertheless, when Gessi returned to Khartum to report the result of his Albert Nyanza explorations to Gordon, the latter exclaimed, “What a pity you are not an Englishman!” This remark is supposed to have been made from pique that the two English officers despatched by Gordon (Watson and Chippendall) had not arrived in time to accomplish what a Levantine Italian had successfully performed. Gessi was already somewhat offended, because he considered that he had done an excellent piece of work, and he had only received as a reward a present of a few hundred francs and the decoration of the Mejidieh, third class. He therefore flung his fez at Gordon’s feet and tendered his resignation. He journeyed to Italy, and was received with great distinction by the Italian Geographical Society at Rome, who presented him with their Gold Medal. He resolved, however, to return to work as an explorer, giving particular attention to anthropological and zoölogical researches. He engaged two Austrian-Italians--Giacomo Morch and Riccardo Buchta--to accompany him. Buchta deserves special notice, as he was the first careful photographer to visit the regions of the Upper Nile. His photographs of the native types and scenery of these countries taken between 1878 and 1882 are remarkably interesting.