Ourlamentedtraveller，Livingstone，wascompletelyinerrorwhenheconjecturedthatthelargeriverLualabathathehaddiscoveredsouth-westoftheTanganyikalakewasanaffluentoftheBahrGazal。TheLualabaisfartothewestoftheNileBasin，andmaypossiblyflowtotheCongo。Ihaveshowninformerworks，indescribingthesystemoftheNile，thatthegreataffluentsofthatriverinvariablyflowfromthesouth-east——vide，theAtbara，BlueNile，Sobat；andtheAsua，whichisveryinferiorsothethreegreatriversnamed。
WehavelastlytheVictoriaNileoftheVictoriaN’yanza，followingthesameprinciple，andflowingfromthesouth-easttotheAlbertN’yanza。
ThisprovesthatthedirectdrainageoftheNileBasinisfromthesouth-easttothenorth-west；itisthereforeprobablethat，astheinclinationofthecountryistowardsthewest，theremaybesomeescapefromthelakemarshesoftheBahrGazalinthesamedirection。
On21stAugust，havingbeenabsenttendays，duringwhichwehadbeenveryhardatwork，exploringintheunhealthymarshesoftheBahrGaza]，wereturnedhopelesslytoTewfikeeyah。
ThegreatriverNilewasentirelylost，andhadbecomeaswamp，similartotheconditionoftheBahrGiraffe。Itwasimpossibletoguesstheextentoftheobstruction；butIwasconfidentthatitwouldbesimplyaquestionoftimeandlabourtocleartheoriginalchannelbyworkingfrombelowthestream。Thegreatpowerofthecurrentwouldassistthework，andwithpropermanagementthisformerlybeautifulrivermightberestoredtoitsoriginalcondition。ItwouldbeimpossibletocleartheBahrGiraffepermanently，astherewasnotsufficientbreadthofchanneltopermittheescapeofhugeraftsofvegetationoccupyingthesurfaceofperhapsanacre；butthegreatwidthoftheNile，ifonceopened，togetherwiththeimmensepowerofthestream，would，withalittleannualinspection，assurethepermanencyofthework。