Tanganyika

Tanganyika, a long and comparatively narrow lake of East Central Africa, is situated in lat. 3° to 9° S., and long. 30° E., and occupies a kind of gorge, with a varying breadth of 15 to 80 mlles, and a length of 420 miles, thus being the longest lake in the world, It lies 2,700 feet above sea-level, has 900 miles of coast, and has been found in parts to have a depth of 168 fathoms. It was discovered by Speke and Burton in 1858; and was considered to belong to the Nile basin; but in 1874 Cameron discovered a western outlet, Lukuga, which, he thought, communicated with the Congo. Stanley disputed the fact of thls being a permanent outlet, and considered it to form only an occasional overflow, but Hore in 1880 decided that it was permanent. The water is freh and good, and the climate fair, though the excessive evaporation causes an almost constant mist. The lake is subject to violent storms from the S.W., and is surrounded by mountains which rise to a height of 10,000 feet in places. The region is well-timbered, and has magnificent scenery, and animal life is abnndant. The lake is between the Nile basin and that of the Zambesi, and has German and Portuguese possessions on the east, and the Congo Free State and British possessions on the west. A road leads from Lake Tanganyika to Lake Nyassa.