THE ZOUGA. 429 



ant, and in some places the scenery is quite charming, the 

 banks of the river being often, to the very water's edge, cov- 

 ered with majestic trees of beautiful and dense foliage. The 

 baobob is particularly conspicuous, attaiping, not unfrequent- 

 ly, round its stem, a girth of from sixty to seventy-five feet. 

 " The banks," says Mr. Livingstone, in a letter to a friend, 

 "are beautiful beyond any we had ever seen, except, per- 

 haps, some parts of the Clyde. * * * Xhe higher we as- 

 cended the river the broader it became, until we often saw 

 more than one hundred yards of clear deep water between 

 the broad belt of reed which grows in the shallower parts. 

 * * * One remarkable feature in this river is its period- 

 ical rise and fall. It has risen nearly three feet since our ar- 

 rival ; and this is the dry season. That the rise is not caused 

 by rains is evident from the water being so pure. Its purity 

 and softness increased as we ascended toward its junction 

 with the Tamanakle, from which, although connected with 

 the lake, it derives its present increased supply. The people 

 could give no reason for the rise of the water further than 

 that a chief, who lives in a part of the country to the north, 

 called Mazzekiva, kills a man annually and throws his body 

 into the stream, after which the water begins to flow." 



Before closing my remarks on the rivers of the Lake, I 

 must beg to draw the attention of the reader to a circum- 

 stance which may prove of the most vital interest to the civ- 

 ilization and commerce of these regions. It is as follows : 



About two days west of the Teoge, two rivers are report- 

 ed to exist. The one is a small branch of the Teoge, and is 

 supposed, after meandering through a desert for a couple of 

 days, to lose itself in a marsh. The second (and to which I 

 particularly desire to draw notice) is of larger dimensions, 

 though, near to its source, only periodical. In its course, 

 however, it is fed by fountains — not an uncommon thing in 

 Africa — and it soon increases to a constantly running stream. 

 In due time it becomes a mighty river, flowing slowly through 



