with! only a strong doubt in his mind as to its
having been a lion, and a few reddish hairs to
prove that it was something which had been
eaten b y hyenas. This day I succeeded in shooting
a small antelope o f the springbok kind.
W e crossed the plain on the n t h December,
and arrived at Tubugwe. It is only s ix miles
in width, but within this distance we counted
fourteen human skulls, the mournful relics of
some unfortunate travellers, slain b y an attack
o f Wahumba from the north-west.. I think it is
beyond doubt that this plain, extending, as it
does, from the unexplored north-west, and
projecting like a b a y into a deep mountain fiord
south-east o f our road, must in former times
have been an inlet or creek o f the great reservoir
o f which the Ugombo lake, south o f here, is a
residuum. T he bed o f this ancient lake now
forms the pastoral plains o f the Wahumba, and
the broad plain-like expanses visible in the
U g o g o country.
Rounding the western extremity o f a hilly
range near the scene o f our adventures, we
followed a v a lle y till it sloped into a basin, und
finally narrowed to a ravine, along the bottom
o f which runs a small brackish stream. A bed
o f rock-salt was discovered on the opposite side.
Tw o miles farther, at the base o f a hilly cone,
we arrived at a wooded gully, where v e ry clear
and fresh w a te r ‘ is found, and from which the
path runs west, gradually rising along the slope
o f a hill until it terminates in a pass 3700 feet
above sea-level, whence the basin of Tubugwe
appears in view, enclosing twenty-five square,
stockaded villages and many low hills, and
patched with cultivated fields. A gentle descent
o f about 400 feet brought us to our camp, on
the banks o f a small tributary o f the Mukondokwa.
On the 12th December, twenty-five days’ march
from Bagamoyo, we arrived at Mpwapwa.
The region traversed from the eastern slopes
o f that broad range which we began to skirt
soon after passing to the left bank o f the Wami
river, as far as Chunyu (a few miles west o f
Mpwapwa), comprises the extreme breadth o f
the tract distinguished in the w o rk , ‘How I
Found Livingstone,’ as the Usagara mountains.
T h e rocks are o f the older class, gneiss and
schists, but in several localities granite protrudes,
besides humpy d yke s o f trap. From the brackish
stream east o f Tu bu gwe, as far as Mpwapwa,
there are also several d yke s o f a feldspathic
ro ck , notably one that overlooks the basin of
Tubugwe. T h e various clear streams coursing
towards the Mukondokwa, as we dipped and
rose over the highest points o f the mountains
among which the path led us, re v e a l'b e d s o f
granite, shale, and rich brown prophyritic rock,
while many loose boulders o f a granitic character
lie strewn on each side, either standing up half