The boatmen proposed that we should land upon the
floating vegetation, as that would be a short cut to the village or town
of Magungo; but as the swell of the water against the abrupt raft of
reeds threatened to swamp the canoe, I preferred coasting until we
should discover a good landing place. After skirting the floating reeds
for about a mile, we turned sharp to the east, and entered a broad
channel of water bounded on either side by the everlasting reeds. This
we were informed was the embouchure of the Somerset river from the
Victoria N'yanza. The same river that we had crossed at Karuma, boiling
and tearing along its rocky course, now entered the Albert N'yanza as
dead water! I could not understand this; there was not the slightest
current; the channel was about half a mile wide, and I could hardly
convince myself that this was not an arm of the lake branching to the
east. After searching for some time for a landing place among the
wonderful banks of reeds, we discovered a passage that had evidently
been used as an approach by canoes, but so narrow that our large canoe
could with difficulty be dragged through--all the men walking through
the mud and reeds, and towing with their utmost strength. Several
hundred paces of this tedious work brought us through the rushes into
open water, about eight feet deep, opposite to a clean rocky shore.
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