wegeri from the east, is the Tanganika, and a cordial understanding
between the waters has been kept up until lately,
when it appears that the Lukuga has begun to be restive
and wayward, for it sometimes flows west, and sometimes
east; or, in other words, the Lukuga during the rainy season
flows into the Tanganika, bearing with it an immense
amount of water, grass, wood, and other matter, but during
the dry season, when the south-east monsoon prevails, the
Lukuga is borne west, lifting its head clear of the dry
ground and mud-banks, and flows down to the Kamalondo,
near Kalumbi’s country, under the name of Ruindi or'
Luindi. Until this rainy season, or say March of this year,
1876, there stood a low bank of earth or mud, several
hundred yards long, between the Luindi and Lukuga, but
this years rainfall has united the two rivers, the Lukuga
flowing over this by Miketo’s country into Rua. Kamalondo
is a river, and not a lake, being another name for the
Lualaba.
When Cameron was here in 1874, there was a spit of
dry sand lined with grass or cane, projecting from the south
side, and a similar one from thé north side, the two being
separated by a narrow channel, but to-day both spits are
covered with a line of wild breakers. The spot where
Cameron camped is no longer tenable, but is exposed to the
billows of the Tanganika, which at this season are driven
in by the south-east monsoon.
“ Take it any way you please, Such conflict of opinions
among people who ought to know what an outlet or an outflowing
river is—many of them having seen the Luapula
flow out from Bemba lake, others having seen the Lualaba
plunge down from Mweru lake—makes it clear that there is
either a crisis approaching in nature or that it has lately
taken place, or is occurring— one cannot say which until the
Lukuga is explored, and this work I propose to begin tomorrow.”
Cameron says, on p. 304, in vol. i. of his
‘Across Africa’:—
“ Its entrance was more than a mile across, but closed by
a grass-grown sandbank with the exception of a channel
300 or 400 yards wide, and across the channel there is a
sill where the suirf break:? heavily at times, although there
is more than a fathom of water at its most shallow part.”
An inflowing river meeting the billows of the
Tanganika might be supposed to form a “ surf,”
or a sandy sill, it being only natural that there
should be a conflict between the opposing forces.
To this struggle then must be attributed the
formation of the “ sill of sand” which Cameron
said ran across the channel.
On the 16th we sailed up the creek. The
mouth of the Lukuga, which was about 2500
yards wide, narrowed after a mile to 800 yards,
and after another mile to 400 or 500 yards.
Upon rounding the point of land on which
Mkampemba stands, and where there is a considerable
tract under tillage, I observed that
the water changed its colour to a reddish
brown, owing to the ferruginous conglomerate
of which the low bluffs on either side are composed.
This was also a proof to me that there
was no outflowing river here. Clear water outflowing
from the Tanganika, only two miles
from the lake, ought never to be so deeply discoloured.