chiefs of Usui, we were fax in the interior at Kara-
gue, with certainly not enough of beads to last us six
months.
The first sixteen marches from Ukuni were through
very pleasant undulations of tall soft grass and umbrageous
forest-trees, spots here and there being cleared
for cultivation, and capable of yielding grain for one
or two thousand travellers throughout a season. On
getting into Usui the watershed had changed; all ran
to Victoria Nyanza. Our path crossed three or four
escarped hills, tailing gently off to lower ground in
the north. About Lohagattee there was picturesque
scenery. Delightfully wild rocks and crags interspersed
with trees overhung the valleys, reminding
one of the echoing cliffs over the Lake of Killamey.
A waterfall, too, added a rare charm to this part of the
journey. The water fell upon hard, black, volcanic-like
boulders of conglomerate, in a cascade of two cubic
feet from the top of the escarpment seventy feet in
height. Amongst the spray beautiful ferns and mosses
grew in great luxuriance, recalling many a ramble at
home for plants and objects of natural history; but
though crabs were about the water, no land-shells were
found. The natives came into camp asking why the
fall had been visited by the white man. Did he mean
to stop the water that supplied the whole valley, by
turning its course or drinking up its waters ? Their
chief, we heard, when rain is required, goes through a
propitiatory ceremony at this spot to bring it in abundance;
but as this year rain had fallen at its usual season,
their fears were easily calmed. The rain-doctor had
put out his magic instruments under a tree by the
20th October, and expected it abundantly at new
moon, fifteen days afterwards, when his year would
have expired. He begged for a piece of paper to
assist him, and on getting half a sheet of foolscap,
said he would prefer paper written over ! From the
26th of September, and during October, we had very
pleasant showers and slight thunderstorms. At new
moon, on the 2d November, as the doctor predicted,
we had a heavy wind-storm, with pelting rain; but by
the 5th, our magical horn, the rain-gauge, had worked
its charm and stopped the rain ! When in low ground,
or where water was lying near the surface, the mornings
were so cold that gloves would have been a comfort.
During the day the sun was oppressive, but in the
shade, with a N.E. wind generally blowing, it was
agreeably cool. Water was everywhere abundant the
first half of the journey, in wells dug outside the villages,
and in the boggy dips which drained the country
to the north in the latter half. For the first time in
Africa, we got clear crystal water bursting from under
the hard stratified rock of the parallel ranges of Usui;
and whether it was that the water was purer, that the
season had changed, or that we were in a finer climate,
the men suffered less in health during the months of
October and November than during any previous time
of the year. Speke was rapidly recovering from his
dangerous chest complaint; and instead of my fever
visits, I had only periodical nausea in the morning,
occurring about every ten days during the march.
Geologically, the country of Uzinza has a great deal'
of interest, being broken up into so many varied forms.
One day, from the path of splintered rock, you may
contemplate the face of a long, bare, sloping hill, the
surface of which is half rock half bog, giving it the