Shimeeyu, the extreme southern reach o f Nile
waters. T h e total length o f the course o f this
river, as laid out on the chart, is 300 miles,
which gives the course o f the Nile a length o f
4200 miles: thus making it the second largest river
in the world. T h e creek extends to a considerable
distance, and then contracts to a width o f
about 400 yards, through which the Monangah,
after uniting with the Luwamberri and the Duma
rivers, discharges its brown waters, under the
name o f the Shimeeyu, into the lake.
After an examination o f these features, we
continued our journey along the coast o f Mazanza,
which forms the eastern shore o f the b a y o f
Shimeeyu, passing b y the b oldly rising and
wooded hills o f Manassa. A t 4 P.M. we attempted
to land in a small co ve, but Were driven
away b y a multitude o f audacious hippopotami*
who rushed towards us open-mouthed. Perceiving
that th ey were too numerous and bold for
us, w e were compelled to drop our stone anchors
in 40 feet oi water, about two miles from
shore.
On the i i t h March, after rowing nearly the
whole day against a head-wind, we arrived at
the eastern end o f S p ek e Guli, which here narrows
to about seven miles. On the southern
side, Manassa extends from Mazanza, its coastline
marked b y an almost unbroken ridge about
two miles inland, varied here and there b y
rMarch 12, 1875.1 PYRAMID POINT. 203
[.P yramid Point.!
rounded knolls and hills, from whose base there
is a gradual slope covered with woods down
to the water’s edge. T he eastern end o f the
gulf is closed b y the land o f the Wirigedi or,
as Saramba called them, the Wajika. A t the
north-eastern end begins Shahshi, consisting o f
a group o f sterile hills, which, as we proceed
west along the north side o f the gulf, sink down
into a naked plain. T h e Ruana river empties
itself into the head o f the gu lf b y two narrow
mouths through a low wooded shore.
On the 12th w e continued to coast along
Shahshi’s low, bare plain, margined at the water’s
edge b y esehinomenae, and a little farther inland
lined b y mimosa, thence past Iramba, a similar
country to Shahshi, until we reached Pyramid
Point, so christened from the shape o f its hills,
but on running up into the b a y (which has its
greatest width at Rugedzi Strait), we found that
Pyramid Point really forms the south-western
end o f a mountain-range. One o f the most conspicuous
objects we saw , as we stood on the
uplands o f Usmau, looking towards the N.N.E.,
was this Pyramid Point, but at that time we
had, o f course, only a dim idea o f its neighbourhood
to the lake.
Near the Point is a group o f small islands,
the principal being Kitaro, on which cattle and
goats are found. Though the islanders obtain
but a scanty subsistence from the soil, th ey find