feet above the lake. From the northern angle
o f Majita we sailed, on a north-east course for
the district o f W y e , across a deep b ay distinguished
only for the short hill-range o f Usambara, between
which, on either side, extends the low
and almost treeless plain o f Shahshi to the
waters o f Speke Gulf.
From W y e we coasted along populous Ururi.
T he country appears well cultivated, and villages
are numerous. Some o f the Waruri fishermen
informed us we should be eight years circumnavigating
the lake! Numerous ro ck y islands,
almost all uninhabited at this period, stud the
neighbourhood o f the mainland, and the coast
is so indented with deep bays and inlets that it
requires v e ry careful attention to survey it. Its
features are similar to those o f Usukuma, namely,
swelling and uneven lines o f hills, sometimes
with slopes extending for three or four miles,
more often, as in the case o f nearly all the headlands,
with points springing abrupt and sheer
from the water’s edge. Wherever the ridges
rise gradually and at a , distance from the lake,
special advantages for cultivation appear to obtain,
for I h a v e , noted that all such sites were
thickly populated b y the tribes o f Ururi, Ukerewe,
Sima, Magu, or Uchambi. A few o f the Burdett-
Coutts Islands exhibited traces o f having been
the resort o f fugitives, for on several o f them
we discovered bananas and other garden plants,
rMarch i8,1875.1 AMONG THE HIPPOPOTAMI. 209
L Dobo. J
and ruined huts. We struck across the b a y to
Ikungu, and thence across another to picturesque
Dobo, nearly opposite to Irieni.
Having arrived at anchorage at dusk, we were
]ed to seek shelter under the lee o f one o f the
outlying rocks o f Dobo. W e had moored both
b y bow and ste rn, to prevent being swept b y
the restless surf against the ro cks , but about
midnight a storm arose from the eastward, e x posing
us to all its fury. W e were swept with
great force against the rocks, and should inevitably
have been lost, had not the oars, which
we had lashed outside the boat as fenders, p rotected
it, Through the pelting rain, and amid
the thunders o f the aroused waves which lashed
the re ef, we laboured strenuously to save ourselves,
and finally succeeded in rowing to the
other lee.
Exrernally, the aspect o f these islands on the
coast o f Ururi is v e r y ru g g ed , bare, .and unpromising
, but within are many acres o f cultivable
soil covered with green grass,', and the
hippopotami, which abound in the neighbourhood
of these deserted, grassy islands, here find
luxurious [pasturage. L ik e the tribes on the
mainland, these amphibiae appear to possess
also their re sp e c tiv e boundaries and their separate
haunts. T h e hippopotami o f L a k e V ic toria,
moreover , are an excessively belligerent
species, and the unwary voyager, on approaching
t h r o u g h t h e d a r k c o n t in e n t . .V O L . I. P.