red of the clay schists among the greenwood-trees, made the dullest of my attendants pause and remark with wonder.  Antelopes, buffaloes, and elephants abound on the steep slopes; and hippopotami, crocodiles, and fish swarm in the water.  Gnus are here unknown, and these animals may live to old age if not beguiled into pitfalls.  The elephants sometimes eat the crops of the natives, and flap their big ears just outside the village stockades.  One got out of our way on to a comparatively level spot, and then stood and roared at us.  Elsewhere they make clear off at sight of man.

The first village we came to on the banks of the Lake had a grove of palm-oil and other trees around it.  This palm tree was not the dwarf species seen on Lake Nyassa.  A cluster of the fruit passed the door of my hut which required two men to carry it.  The fruit seemed quite as large as those on the West Coast.  Most of the natives live on two islands, where they cultivate the soil, rear goats, and catch fish.  The Lake is not large, from 15 to 20 miles broad, and from 30 to 40 long.  It is the receptacle of four considerable streams, and sends out an arm two miles broad to the N.N.W., it is said to Tanganyika, and it may be a branch of that Lake.  One of the streams, the Lonzua, drives a smooth body of water into the Lake fifty yards broad and ten fathoms deep, bearing on its surface duckweed and grassy islands.  I could see the mouths of other streams, but got near enough to measure the Lofu only; and at a ford fifty miles from the confluence it was 100 yards wide and waist deep in the dry season.

We remained six weeks on the shores of the Lake, trying to pick up some flesh and strength.  A party of Arabs came into Ulungu after us in search of ivory, and hearing that an Englishman had preceded them, naturally inquired where I was.  But our friends, the Baeulungu, suspecting that mischief was meant, stoutly denied that they had ever seen anything of the sort; and then became very urgent that I should go on to one of the inhabited islands for safety.  I regret that I suspected them of intending to make me a prisoner there, which they could easily have done by removing the canoes; but when the villagers who deceived the Arabs told me afterwards with an air of triumph how nicely they had managed, I saw that they had only been anxious for my safety.  On three occasions the same friendly disposition was shown; and when we went round the west side of the Lake in order to examine the arm or branch above referred to, the headman at the confluence of the Lofu protested so strongly against my going—­the Arabs had been fighting, and I might be mistaken for an Arab, and killed—­that I felt half-inclined to believe him.  Two Arab slaves entered the village the same afternoon in search of ivory, and confirmed all he had said.  We now altered our course, intending to go south about the district disturbed by the Arabs.  When we had gone