This digression finished, an endeavour will now be made to give some idea of the general course of the river from its source in the Victoria Lake.
The Nile, after its first leap over the beautiful Ripon Falls, traverses a hilly country, in a narrow channel, its stream being much broken by rapids and falls, and its bed rocky and full of reefs. On emerging from this region it passes through a chain of swampy lakes, succeeded by a tract of woodland country, and eventually encountering a fresh series of obstructions in the shape of rapids. Over these obstacles it dashes impetuously, with an increasing slope and velocity, until it reaches the 'Rift' escarpment, where it throws itself over the cliffs in the magnificent cascade—the finest throughout its entire course—to which Sir Samuel Baker gave the name of the Murchison Falls. Here the Nile, after rushing, like a mill-race, through a cleft in the rocks, under 20 feet in width, falls nearly 150 feet, in a double drop, into the pool below. The roar produced by the fell of this immense volume of water is deafening, and can be heard for many miles; while above the pool a perpetual cloud of spray, illumined by the iridescent colours of a rainbow, rises high in the air, like the steam from a boiling cauldron.
Leaving the falls behind, the river glides on with a swift current, between wooded hills, to the Albert Lake. Into this its waters discharge themselves across a reedy bar and through wide papyrus swamps. Thus far it has compassed a distance of 255 miles. Five miles to the norm it leaves the lake, and reassumes the appearance of a river. From this point of its course it is known as the Bahr-el-Gebel, or Mountain River, and this name is applied to it as far as Lake No, north of which it is known as the Bahr-el-Abyiad, or White Nile.
After issuing from Lake Albert, the Nile passes through a region of very varied aspect. At times it flows, with a narrow, deep section and a swift stream, between bush-covered but stony hills, a favourite retreat of the surly rhinoceros and the bush-loving antelopes.
