POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



857 



intervals ; " the people are a fine-looking 

 race of gentlemen savages, who dress in- 

 differently in nothing, or roll themselves 

 into a winding-sheet of twelve yards of cot- 

 ton." They treated their visitors courte- 

 ously, " and always took indirect means of 

 telling us anything unpleasant." Another 

 plateau, from six to nine thousand feet 

 high, extends around the north and east 

 sides of Lake Xyassa, half-way to Lake 

 Tanganyika and around Lake Ilikwa, or 

 Leopold, and is inhabited by three tribes 

 in the lowest physical and mental condition, 

 with whom it was almost impossible to com- 

 municate, as they seemed to be devoid of 

 abstract ideas, and shut out from all knowl- 

 edge and communication with the outside 

 world. A short distance beyond the north- 

 west corner of the beautiful Lake Nyassa, 

 the expedition came to Makula's country, 

 where the life and manners appeared of 

 charming Arcadian simplicity. " The clean 

 and ornamental villages would have adorned 

 the neighborhood of any nobleman's park, 

 and the richness of the soil was quite un- 

 rivaled " ; and Mr. Thomson left, as he 

 left no other place, with regret, a country 

 which he had entered with apprehension. 

 Thence the expedition passed through the 

 country of the bold, rude, exceedingly in- 

 hospitable Wanyika ; through Itawa, where 

 Mr. Thomson was taken prisoner, and es- 

 caped by laughing at the excited warriors 

 and being thought uncanny ; and through 

 other not very remarkable districts, to the 

 " noble river Lukuga " and Lake Tangan- 

 yika. The Lukuga winds through a charm- 

 ing valley, with beautiful wooded hills ris- 

 ing on each side from its borders, adorned 

 with forest clumps and open glades, where 

 antelopes and buffaloes grazed in abun- 

 dance. The river moved along in an exceed- 

 ingly rapid current, full of cataracts, along 

 which it roared and surged, making any at- 

 tempt at navigation a matter of impossibil- 

 ity. Mr. Thomson would have followed it, 

 but his men refused to go farther, and he 

 turned back. He passed three weeks with 

 the Warua, a very fine-looking race of men, 

 living in the plain between the Lukuga and 

 the Lualaba. They " are possessed of well- 

 made figures, which the women adorn most 

 artistically with tattooing. They wear a 

 kilt made of the fibers of the Mwale palm, 



and dress their hair in the most elaborate 

 fashion, the operation requiring two days' 

 hard work. They are exceedingly ingenious 

 in their carvings, and in every respect they 

 are neat in their appearance and cleanly 

 in their habits, but there all praise ends." 

 They are arrant scoundrels and thieves, 

 and one is not sure of his life among them 

 for a moment. The feature of the return 

 journey to Zanzibar most woi'thy of remark 

 was the sight the first to Europeans from 

 the highlands of Fipa, of the curious Lake 

 Rukwa, Likwa, or Ilikwa, to which Mr. 

 Thomson took the liberty of giving a fourth 

 name, Leopold. It is situated about four 

 thousand feet above the sea, is surround- 

 ed by precipitous mountains about as much 

 higher, and has no visible outlet. The peo- 

 ple of the country are agriculturists, who 

 do not join either in war or the chase ; 

 their chief is a king with absolute power, 

 who lives on native beer, and is prevented 

 by custom from wearing anything but a 

 simple loin-cloth. Mr. Thomson reached 

 Zanzibar in the spring of 1880. During 

 his journey of a year in this most difficult 

 country, he lost only one of the one hun- 

 dred and fifty men with whom he started ; 

 and though often placed in critical posi- 

 tions, he never once had to fire a gun for 

 either offensive or defensive purposes. 



Artifirial Prodnction of Minerals. M. 



Friedel gave an extended account, m a re- 

 cent lecture at the Faculty of Medicine, 

 Paris, of what has been accomplished in 

 the artificial formation of minerals. The 

 condition necessary to be fulfilled in this 

 manufacture is that of obtaining crystalline 

 products as nearly as possible identical in 

 composition and appearance with the min- 

 erals to be reproduced. Generally experi- 

 menters have had to be satisfied with micro- 

 scopic crystals ; accepting these as suflScient, 

 numbers of them have succeeded. Some 

 hare tried to imitate the processes of na- 

 ture ; oth'ers have reached their end by in- 

 dependent processes. M. de Senarmont, 

 considering that the minerals in veins had 

 been deposited from water charged with 

 their constituents and flowing through the 

 fissures of the rocks, with carbonic acid, 

 sulphuretted hydrogen, and the alkaline 

 sulphurets as solvents, and under suitable 



