CHAPTER XVI 



P'ROM TANGANYIKA TO THE CONGO 



* Through many a dark and dreary vale 

 They passed, and many a region dolorous, 



Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death — 



A universe of death, which God by curse 



Created evil, for evil only good ; 



Where all life dies, death lives, and Nature breeds 



Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things, 



Abominable, unutterable, and worse 



Than fables yet have feigned or fear conceived.' 



Milton. 



About seventy miles down the west shore of 

 Tanganyika is the wide inlet known as Burton's 

 Gulf, near the head of which is Baraka, where 

 we landed. It would have been more interesting 

 to continue down the lake to the Lukuga, the 

 river by which a small portion of the water of 

 Tanganyika finds its way into the Congo ; but such 

 a journey would have been a matter of weeks, and 

 it was out of the question to attempt it with the 

 miserable canoes at our disposal. To more for- 

 tunate travellers, provided with better boats than 

 we had, I would suggest coasting down the west 

 side of the lake as far as the Lukuga, and then 



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