544 Major Alfred St. Hill Gibbons [March 15, 



and watershed before the Koyal Geographical Society, I will not 

 repeat here. 



M. Lemaire insisted on my travelling with him to Lukafu, and 

 relieved my poor donkeys by placing a dozen loadless porters at my 

 disposition. The donkeys I subsequently gave to Captain Verdick, 

 the Lukafu commandant, who secured me twelve excellent porters to 

 carry my goods along the line of the lakes and down the Nile to 

 Lado. 



Lukafu station is beautifully situated on ground rising from 

 the Lufira plain. A small mountain stream, from which it takes 

 its name, winds through the station grounds. Though only 3100 

 feet above the sea level, Captain Verdick assured me that the station 

 is very healthy ; this, I imagine to be due partly to the presence of 

 exceptionally good water, but mainly to two conditions of living 

 which are much neglected by the majority of Europeans settled in 

 Africa : excellent brick houses, and — a good cook ! 



Two miles to the east of Lukafu red cliffs rise abruptly to some 

 1400 feet and culminate in the Kundelungu plateau, which undulates 

 to a height of 5000 feet above the sea level. This very choice 

 plateau has a length of 200 miles, and stretches as far as the north- 

 west of Lake Mweru. On crossing it I made an equally steep descent 

 into a plain approximately of an equal altitude to that which I had 

 left three da} 7 s earlier. Travelling in an almost northerly direction 

 I struck the south-western shore of Lake Mweru. That this lake 

 at no very remote period covered a much larger area than it does 

 to-day, with its 2500 square miles, is apparent from the nature of 

 the ground in the south-west and north. Kilwa island, which is 

 shown near its eastern shore on existing maps, is in reality within 

 a couple of miles from the western shore. Leaving the lake, I 

 passed through a grand mountainous district till I reached M'pala, on 

 Tanganika, but 1 did so at an angle of 15 degrees east of north, 

 instead of 30, as the existing maps have it. This, assuming the 

 position of Mweru to be longitudinally correct, as I believe it to be, 

 places M'pala some 22 miles west of its hitherto allotted position. 

 The tale the telegraph line, recently laid to the south of the lake, 

 has told, suggests that my correction is justified. At M'pala a palm 

 tree stands nearly a quarter of a mile from the present lake shore, 

 and, so far as I could judge, 25 feet above its level. According to 

 native report, Livingstone rested under this tree and moored his 

 boat to its trunk. Thus, since his visit, the lake would seem to have 

 fallen some 10 inches per annum. I subsequently waded knee-deep 

 over the sand barrier which extends across the Lukugu outlet, and 

 I concluded that in existing circumstances the lowering of the lake 

 surface will continue indefinitely, for immediately beyond the bar 

 the Lukugu flows down a steep descent into a gorge many feet below 

 the lake level. 



From Tanganika to Kivu is a valley 20 miles wide at the south 

 end, along which the connecting river — the Euzizi — winds with a 



