As we proceeded on, the chief told us to
stop, and threw a stick into the water, asking
us to note how, despite the ripple and wind
from lakeward, the stick and the water-bubbles
persisted in struggling against them towards the
lake. His face was triumphant as he thought
he had completely proved one part of his statement,
that water came into the lake. It only
remained now, as he thought, to prove that
water flowed out towards the west.
Wherever there were indentations in the bluffs
that banked it in, or a dip in the low grass*
covered debris beneath, a growth of Matete or
water-cane and papyrus filled up these bits of
still water, but mid-channel was clear and maintained
a breadth of open white water ranging
from 90 to 450 yards.
Within an hour we arrived at the extremity
of the open water, which had gradually been
narrowed in width, by the increasing abundance
of papyrus, from 250 yards to 40 yards. We
ceased rowing, and gently glided up to the
barrier of papyrus, which had now completely
closed up the creek from bank to bank, like a
luxuriant field of tall Indian corn. We sounded
at the base of these reeds along a breadth of
40 yards, and obtained from 7 to 11 feet of
water! With a portable level I attempted to
ascertain a current; the level indicated none!
Into a little pool, completely sheltered by the
rjuly 16, 1876.-1 N 0 C U R R E N T T O B E A S C E R T A IN E D . 6 1
L Lukuga. J
broadside of the boat, we threw a chip or two,
and some sticks. In five minutes the chips had
moved towards the reeds about a foot! We
then crushed our way through about twenty
yards of the papyrus, and came to impassable
mud-banks, black as pitch, and seething with
animal life. Returning to the boat, I asked four
men to stand close together, and, mounting
their shoulders with an oar for support, I endeavoured
with a glass to obtain a general view. I
saw a broad belt some 250 or 300 yards wide
of a papyrus-grown depression, lying east and
west between gendy sloping banks, thinly covered
with scrubby acacia. Here and there were
pools of open water, and beyond were a few trees
growing, as it seemed to me, right in the bed.
I caused some of my men to attempt to cross
from one bank to the other, but the muddy
ooze was not sufficiently firm to bear the weight
of a man.
I then cut a disc of wood a foot in diameter,
drove a nail in, and folded cotton under its
head. I then rove a cord 5 feet in length
through this, suspending to one end an earthenware
pot, with which I tried an experiment.
Along the hedge of papyrus I measured 1000
feet with a tape-line, both ends of the track
marked by a broad riband of sheeting tied to
a papyrus reed. Then, proceeding to the eastern
or lake end of the track, I dropped the earthen