ALBERT NYAN'ZA, called by the natives MwuTAN-Nzn:E. A large lake of British East Africa, one of the reservoirs of the Nile, ted in a deep rock-basin, SO miles northwest of the Victoria Nyanza (Map: Africa, lI 4). This lake is the northernmost of a series of five that occupy the lower basins of a great rift that extends for 1000 milea in a general southerly direction to near the mouth of the Zambezi River. Tanganyika and Nyassa occupy other portions of the same rift valley. The Albert Nyanza is of an oblong shape, and is PM miles long from northeast to southwest, and 25 miles broad, having an area of about 2000 square miles. It is intersected by let. 2° N. and long. 31° E. The Nile issues from the northern end of the Albert where the outlet of the Victoria Nyanza. the Victoria Nile, discharges into the lake. At its south end the lake receives the Semliki, the outlet of the Albert Edward Nyanza. On the east it is fringed by precipitous cliffs, having a mean altitude of 150)) feet, with isolated peaks rising from 5000 to 10,000 feet. The surface of the lake is about 2100 feet. above the sea ; its is fresh and sweet, and of great depth toward the centre. The northern and west ern shores of the lake are bordered by a massive range of hills, called the Blue Mountains, which have an elevation of about 7000 feet. The exist
ence of this vast lake first became known to Europeans through Speke and Grant, who, in 1862, heard of it under the name of the Lnta Nzige. It was described by the natives as only a narrow reservoir formino• a shallow back-water of the Nile. When Speke and Grant, after the discovery of the Victoria Nyanza, were, in 1863, descending the Nile on their return to Europe, they met, at Gondokoro, Sir Samuel White Baker (q.v.), who was ascending the river. After a toilsome march and many adventures, his party came, early in 1864, in sight of the lake, which Baker named in honor of Prince Albert, who was but recently dead. The extent and general out lines of the lake were not accurately determined until 1876, when it was circumnavigated by Signor Romolo Gessi, an Italian explorer at tached to General Gordon's. Egyptian expedition. A year later, in 1S77. Colonel Mason, an Ameri can officer in the service of the Egyptian govern ment, made a more careful survey of the lake, fully confirming Gessi's report. See GREAT RIFT