A RICH COUNTRY 215 



measure is a small * Liebig ' pot, and the porter 

 always takes good care to see that it is well pressed 

 down and running over. 



The above digressions were suggested by the 

 splendid physique of the porters whom we engaged 

 at Nya-Lukemba ; and when we left that place and 

 passed through their country, we saw the reason 

 of their good health. The Rusisi River wriggles 

 out of Lake Kivu in a most unpretentious way, 

 and immediately plunges down a narrow valley, 

 where it becomes a huge mountain torrent, and 

 is exceedingly difficult to follow. The route which 

 we took led us away to the west of the Rusisi 

 through a hilly, rather than mountainous, country, 

 at an altitude of between 5,000 and 7,000 feet. 

 Everywhere there were villages, and every hill-side 

 was covered with cultivation — splendid crops of 

 beans and maize and millet — and where the slopes 

 were too steep for cultivation, or in the valleys, 

 where the ground was wet and marshy, there were 

 grazing great herds of fat cattle. The people, who 

 were working industriously everywhere in the fields, 

 seemed to be a splendidly healthy race, and the 

 children, who swarmed round every village, were 

 the fattest and sturdiest little milk-fed creatures it 

 would be possible to see. 



When, if it ever does, the eastern part of the 

 Congo Free State becomes accessible by railway, 

 there can be hardly any doubt that these highlands 

 between Kivu and Tanganyika will be occupied 



