especially attracted my notice. From the green slopes of
the hills, set up at a slant, as if the central line of pressure
on the dome top had weighed
on the inside plates, protruded
soft slabs of argillaceous sandstone,
whose laminae presented
a beef-sandwich appearance,
puce or purple alternating
with creamy-white. Quartz
and other igneous rocks were
also scattered about, lying
" like superficial accumulations
, * in the dips at the foot of the
;/••<' hills, and red sandstone conglomerates
clearly indicated
the presence of iron. The soil
itself looked rich and red, not
One of the Waiuiri^. ‘f f j j 001 ^ C 0 ™ t y
of Devon.
On arriving in camp we pitched under some trees, and
at once were greeted by an officer sent by Rumanika to
help us out of Ustii. This was Kachuchii, an old friend
of Nasib’s, who no sooner saw him than, beaming with
delight, he said to us, “ Now, Was I not right when I told
you the birds flying about on Lohiigati hill were a good
omen? Look here what this man says: Rumanika has
ordered him to bring you on to his palace at once, and
wherever you stop a day, the village officers are instructed
to supply you with food at the king’s expense, for there
are no taxes gathered from strangers in the kingdom of
Karague. Presents may be exchanged, but the name of
tax is ignored.” Grant here shot a rhinoceros, which
came well into play to mix with the day’s flour we had
carried on from Vihembe.
Deluded yesterday by the sight of the broad waters of
the Liierii lo Urigi, espied in the distance from the top
of a hill, into the belief that we were in view of the
To First Urigi, N’yanza itself, we walked triumphantly along,
thinking how well the Arabs at Kaz6 had
described this to be a creek of the great lake; but on
arrival in camp we heard from the village officer that we
had been misinformed, and that it was a detached lake,
but connected with the Victoria N’yanza by a passage in
the hills and the Kitanguffi river. Formerly, he said,
the Urigi valley was covered with water, extending up to
Uhha, when all the low lands we had crossed from Usui
had to be ferried, and the saddle-back hills were a mere
chain of islands in the water. But the country had dried
up, and the lake of Urigi became a small swamp. He
further mformed us, that even in the late king Dagara’s
time it was a large sheet of water; but the instant he
ceased to exist, the lake shrank to what we now saw.
Our day’s march had been novel and very amusing.
The hilly country surrounding us, together with the val-
ley, brought back to recollection many happy days I had
once spent with the Tartars in the Thibetian valley of
the Indus—only this was more picturesque; for though
both countries are wild, and very thinly inhabited, this
was greened over with grass, and dotted here and there
on the higher slopes with thick bush of acacias, the
haunts of rhinoceros, both white and black; whilst in
the flat of the valley, herds of hartebeests and fine cattle
roamed about like the kiyang and tame y&k of Thibet.
Then, to enhance all these pleasures, so different from our
former experiences, we were treated like guests by the
chief of the place, who, obeying the orders of his king,
Rumanika, brought me presents, as soon as we arrived, of
sheep, fowls, and sweet potatoes, and was very thankful
for a few yards of red blanketing as a return, without
begging for more.
The farther we went in this country the better we
liked it, as the people were all kept in good order; and