64 THROUGH THE DARK CONTINENT. T Juh ?7i i876- I
LKiyauja Ridge.J
even; sometimes the .men rose until the water was
barely over their ankles, then again they sank
to their hips. The trees I had noticed from
the open creek stood on a point projecting from
the southern bank across the Mitwanzi, but they
were now dead, as the former dry tract had
become quaggy. The name Lukuga clings to
the bed until a few miles west of Miketo’s; when
it becomes known as the Luindi, Ruindi, or
Luimbi.
The Mitwanzi is still daily traversed without
trouble by men, women, and children.
We travelled another three miles along the
Mitwanzi, until we came to the southern end of
the Ki-yanja ridge, for it is through the gap
between this and the Kihunga ridge, which
terminates on the south bank, that the Lukuga
flows toward the west. Even here it was but
a trivial stream, oozing and trickling through a
cane-grass grove.
The most interesting object here was the
rounded end of the Ki-yanja ridge, sloping at
an angle of 30°. As the highest point is probably
between 600 and 1000 feet, there has been some
agency at work to wear down this gap through
the ferruginous conglomerate and soft sandstone
— and some agency stronger than this trivial
stream smothered in reeds, for it has no force
or power.
We got back to Lumba Creek, where we
had left our boat and canoe, late at night. The
next day was devoted to sounding the creek
from the Mitwanzi to the outer bar.
The next morning I took a trip to the top of
the conical hill behind Mkampemba, a village of
Kawe-Niangeh, to lay out and take bearings.
I am of the opinion, after taking all things
into consideration, that Kahangwa Cape was,
at a remote period, connected with Kungwe
Cape on the east coast-—that the Lukuga was
the affluent of the lake as it stood then, that
the lake was at that period at a much higher
altitude than it is at present, that the northern
half of the lake is of a later formation, and that,
owing to the subsidence of that portion, and
the collapsing of the barrier or the Kahangwa
Cape and Kungwe Cape ridge, the waters south
emptied into that of the deep gulf north, and
left the channel of the Lukuga to be employed
as the bed of the affluents Kibamba and Lumba,
or the eastern slope of the Ki-yanja ridge, to
feed the lake. But now that the extension of
the profound bed— created by some great earthquake,
which fractured and disparted the plateau
of Uhha, Ufundi, Ubembe, Goma, &c.—is on
the eve of being filled up, the ancient affluent is
about to resume its old duties of conveying the
surplus waters of the Tanganika down into the
valley of the Livingstone, and thence, along its
majestic winding course, to the Atlantic Ocean.
THROUGH THE DARK CONTINENT. VOL. III. F