450 ACROSS AFRICA. [Chap. 



ing the village of Muinyi Useghara diverged from ours, which 

 a short distance beyond the village left the Mukondokwa, and 

 followed the valley of one of its affluents, the Ugombo, to the 

 lake of the same name, in. which it takes its rise. 



Tlie path on both sides was bordered by lofty hills, often sur- 

 mounted by peaks and blocks of granite and gneiss, and show- 

 ing in many places great seams of red sandstone half grown 

 over with brush-wood. 



Lake Ugpmbo is a sort of natural reservoir dammed up by 

 small hills, and receives the drainage of a portion of the l)arren 

 tract between it and Mpwapwa, w^hich lies in the basin of the 

 Mukondokwa, and in the rainy season is a very considerable 

 sheet of water. Late in the dry season it is merely a pool suffi- 

 ciently large to shelter the small number of hippopotami which 

 remain, for, as the waters decrease, the greater number go down 

 the river Ugombo to find a refuge in the deeper reaches of the 

 Mukondokwa. 



From Lake Ugombo there is a gradual, but considerable, rise 

 toward the water-shed between the Mukondowa basin and that 

 of the Lufiji, the one lying immediately beyond it. 



This jjortion of the route is barren and sterile, the soil com- 

 posed of sand and gravel of quartz and granite overlying clay, 

 with numerous and much-weathered bowlders of granite crop- 

 ping out. The only vegetation consisted of wiry grasses, thorny 

 shrubs, baobab-trees and kolquals, and other members of the 

 family of Euphorlna. A few dry nullahs marked the spot 

 where, in the rainy season, torrents fiowed to Lake Ugombo. 



The Avater-shed being crossed, a tangled net-work of nullahs, 

 small rocky ridges, and patches of thorny jungle, extended as 

 far as the slopes below Mpwapwa, and then, ascending a broad 

 water-course, streams and pools of water were found flowing 

 down the hills, and gradually losing themselves in the sands. 

 Near these streams was nnich cultivation, and the people had 

 herds of cattle. 



A spur of hills stretches out to the westward from the range 

 of the Useghara Mountains. Mpwapwa and its neighboring 

 villages are situated on a terrace -like ridge half-way up the 

 slopes of these hills, which are almost entirely of granite, and, 

 as usual, clothed to their summits with acacias. The road lies 



