278 



NA TV RE 



[Jan. 25. 1877 



ing the end of the lake, passed up the west side, examined | 

 the Lukuga, and returned to Ujiji on May 9. His work | 

 contains a great deal of information as to the result of this 

 survey, and he has been able to lay down, we have no 

 doubt with considerable accuracy, the contour of the 

 shores. These are mostly high and rocky, covered with 

 trees and other vegetation, often fringed with dense reeds, 

 and cut up by a multitude of streams. Animal life of 

 all kinds, quadrupeds, birds, insects, fishes, abounds 



Kyangwe from the Kiver. 



around and in the lake, the scenery of which Cameron 

 describes as of surpassing beauty. The western shores are 

 well peopled by a fairly industrious population, but many 

 portions of the east coast have been devastated by slave- 

 hunters, evidences of whose destructive raids were seen 

 all along Cameron's route. With regard to the river 

 Lukugu, which Cameron believes to be the outlet of Lake 

 Tanganyika, and an affluent of the Lualaba, he has some 

 iateresting notes. He beMeves he traced a distinct cur- 



purpose. 



Hut in lake Mohiya. 



rer.t westwards, and sailed up several miles until stopped 

 by a dense barrier of vegetation which crossed from side 

 to side. As we said when referring to this point pre- 

 viously, we do not think much is to be gained by discus- 

 sing the question in its present shape. It is not as if no 

 further data were to be obtained, the question is one 

 capable of demonstration by the attainment of additional 

 information, and we hope that Mr. Stanley will be able to 

 set it at rest as satisfactorily as he has settled the contour 



of the Victoria Nyanza. To Cameron geographers are 

 greatly indebted for the large additions he has made to a 

 knowledge of Lake Tanganyika. 



About a fortnight after his return from this survey — 

 which, we ought to say, was carried out amidst innume- 

 rable difficulties caused by the timidity and inefficiency 

 of his crews — Cameron crossed the lake to make for 

 Nyangw^ in the hope of obtaining boats to take him 

 down the Lualaba. He passed over pretty much the same 

 route as did Livingstone, whose memory he 

 still found alive among the people. The two 

 main districts in this route are Uguhha and 

 Manyucma, and the people are among the 

 most interesting with whom Cameron came in 

 contact. In Uguhha copper is largely worked, 

 and shaped into curious cross-bars, and in 

 Manyuema iron ore is found and largely 

 smelted in elaborately and ingeniously-con- 

 structed furnaces. The people of Manyuema 

 are in many respects peculiar, and although 

 undoubted cannibals, superior to the tribes 

 ground them. Cameron believes them to be a 

 superior intrusive race, the lower classes being 

 aborigines. They live in well-built houses, 

 arranged in neat villages, and are of fine phy- 

 sique. They seem well deserving of further 

 study. 



At Nyangw^ Cameron was well treated by 

 an old Arab who had been kind to Livingstone, 

 but to his great disappointment he failed in 

 obtaining boats to carry out his cherished 

 He was assured by many people, both 

 here and in his journey southwards, that the Lualaba, 

 a fine broad stream at Nyangwd, flowed westwards into 

 a large lake, Sankorra, to which men came in large boats 

 capable of holding 200 people, for the purpose of trading. 

 From the interesting data collected by Cameron we must 

 say that he has good reason for connecting the Lualaba 

 with the Congo, and regarding the latter as the great 

 drainer of all the region to the west and norih-west of 

 Tanganyika, The Lualaba is in the very lowest 

 part of the great Central African basin, is a 

 river of very large volume, v/hich, in the upper 

 part of its course receives various affluents, and 

 It is difficult to conceive what other south-west 

 African river except the Congo could carry off 

 all this drainage. Still there is an extensive 

 legion, from about 5° N. to io°S. waiting to be 

 explored, and until this is done we think it pre- 

 iii.iture and unnecessary to maintain any posi- 

 u\e theory on the subject. The solution cannot 

 how be far off with so miny expeditions either 

 on the field or about to be sent out. The data 

 obtained by Commander Cameron are of great 

 value, and wilKorm an important guide to sub- 

 sequent explorers. 



In company with an Arab trader, Cameron 

 proceeded southwards in the-hopeof being able 

 to work his way north to Lake Sankorra. In 

 this, too, alas, he was grievously disappointed, 

 his designs being thwarted on every hand 

 by the caprices of besotted chiefs and brutal 

 slave-hunters, and the cowardly fears of his 

 own men. The greater part of the ground 

 from Nyangw^ to the coast region, south 

 west, over which Cameron now travelled, is 



and 



quite new, never having been before explored by any 

 European, so far as is known. Much of the second 

 volume, on this account, possesses novel interest. Most 

 of the country is fertile, well watered, and well wooded. 

 Innumerable streams were crossed, and so level is the 

 watershed between the streams going east and those going 

 west, that during floods, which seem to be frequent, their 

 courses must sometimes be changed. About 200 miles 



y 



