Tanganyika

Tanganyika, a lake of Eastern Central Africa, lying between 3° and 9° S. lat., long. of centre being 30° E.; length, 420 miles (nearly a fifth longer than Lake Michigan); breadth, from 15 to 80 miles; depth in some places very great. It was discovered by Speke and Burton in 1858. Livingstone and Stanley disproved in 1871 the theory till then accepted that the lake belonged to the Nile basin. Cameron surveyed the south and west coasts in 1874, and discovered an outlet, the Lukuga, on the west side. In 1876 Stanley satisfied himself that this channel, which he proved to communicate with the Lualaba or Upper Congo, is generally dried up in certain parts of its course, and only carries the overflow of Tanganyika westward at intervals of years. Thomson reaffirmed the connection between Tanganyika and the Congo by the Lukuga. Mr Hore found the height of the surface in March 1879 to be 2700 feet above sea-level; in August 1880 the water had fallen 10 feet 4 inches. Mr Hore believes that the lake had gradually for several years been rising to the former, apparently its highest level, that the obstructions in the Lukuga had then been carried away, and so the water had found its way to the Congo, making the Lukuga a permanent outlet. Except when several rainy seasons follow one another, the evaporation keeps the water about the same level; the evaporation is so great that the opposite shores, even if only 15 miles distant, are visible only in the rainy season. The water is fresh and wholesome, the climate not unhealthy. The lake is surrounded by high mountains, some of them attaining a height of 10,000 feet. The scenery is beautiful, and the shores abound in animals of all kinds. It is 600 miles from the coast; bounds the Congo Free State on the east, and on the west the German territory; has its south end in British East Africa; and as a link of connection between the Zambesi basin and the Nile is in a very true sense the heart of Africa. The 'Stevenson Road,' from Tanganyika to Nyassa (see LIVINGSTONIA), lies not far inside the British sphere. See Hore's Tanganyika (1892).