52 THROUGH THE DARK CONTINENT. I- Juh 8> l8?6- 1 ^ > L Cameron Bays, i
abled they had managed to beach their boat
without injury.
Between Kasawa and Kipimpi capes there are
deep bays, which I have taken the liberty of
calling the Cameron Bays.* A sterile and bleached
country stretches on every hand around these
bays, and the general appearance of their
sterility is somewhat increased by the chalky
character of some of the low cliffs.
North of the river Rufuvu extends Uemba.
Ruemba— the country of the lake L ’iemba—in
the language of the great Bisa tribe, which all
speak, with slight differences of dialect, in this
region, signifies “ lake.” Mapota River separates
Uemba from Marungu.
Between Kipimpi Cape and Kalambwe Cape,
King Muriro, or “ Fire,” an immigrant from Unya-
mwezi, has, with the aid of a colony of restless
spirits, established a formidable village called
Akalunga, close to the lake. It is a resort for
slavers, for Muriro has numbers of slaves on hand
to exchange for powder and guns, and his people
are always roving about on the look-out for
more.
From Kalambwe Cape northward the mountains
loom higher and steeper, the shore is indented
with many narrow inlets, vertical strata
* So called after Verney Lovett Cameron, Commander,
R.N., the first to navigate the southern half of Lake Tanga-
nika.
r July 9, ¿876. -1 FOREST FIRES.
LMapota River. J
of greenstone being thus exposed, with thin
forests crowning the loose soil which covers
them. The depressions between the hill-tops are
numerous and shallow, consequently the drainage
is quickly carried away in small rills.
Beyond the Mapota the scenery becomes still
bolder, and the more imposing woods impart
with their varied hues of foliage and waving
crowns a picturesqueness that since leaving Fipa
has been wanting in the landscape of the stupendous
and upspringing, terraced plateau wall of
Western Urungu, or in the uniform contours of
Eastern Urungu.
At a camp near an inlet north of Kalambwe
Cape we set fire to some grass to have a more
open view of our surroundings. In an hour it had
ascended the steep slope, and was raging triumphantly
on the summit. Three nights after we
saw it still burning about fifteen miles north of
the locality whence it had first started, like a
crown of glory on a mountain-top.
Observation of this fire, and many others,
explains why, in the midst of African uplands
nourishing a dense forest, we suddenly come
across narrow, far-penetrating plains covered with
grass. They are, no doubt, so many tongue-like
extensions from some broader, grass-covered
expanses caused by fierce fires. Wherever the
ground retains an excessive quantity of moisture,
grasses, with stalks as thick as cane, spring up