LAKE TANGANYIKA. '201 



cataract breaks into five separate streams, which send up, to an ele- 

 vation of 200 or 300 feet, as many columns of luminous vapour 

 pillars of shivering spray, and foam, and diamond sparkle, which in 

 the sunlight are gloriously wreathed with the rare hues of Iris. 



" How profound 



The gulf! and how the giant element 

 From rock to rock leaps with delirious bound, 

 Crushing the cliffs, which, downward worn and rent 

 With his fierce footsteps, yield in chasms a vent 

 To the broad column which rolls on." (Byron.) 



In descending the Zambesi, we encounter the great river Kafue, 

 which flows from the north. Beyond the point of confluence the 

 country becomes opener, freer, and healthier, and we arrive at the 

 Portuguese town of Te'te. 



About 200 miles to the north-west of Tete' lies the great lake of 

 freshwater, Niyanyizi-Nyassa, or "Lake of Stars," which stretches 

 far away to the north-west across Unyamuezi, or " The Land of the 

 Moon." It is rather shallow, sprinkled with numerous fairy islands, 

 and seems to be the remains of an ancient lake of much greater 

 extent. To the south-west a belt of fertile country separates it from 

 another lake called Shirwa, whence issues a beautiful river, tributary 

 to the Zambesi, impeded in its course by numerous rapids, but tra- 

 versing a level and unwholesome country. 



At the same time (1856-58) that Livingstone accomplished these 

 great discoveries, Equatorial Africa was penetrated from the coast of 

 Zambesi by Captains Burton and Speke. These undaunted and in- 

 defatigable travellers, after having ascended the river Pangany for 

 a hundred and thirty miles, through a rich and cultivated but pesti- 

 ferous plain, arrived in February 1858 at Lake Tanganyika, of which 

 the natives had spoken to Livingstone, describing the country lying 

 to the westward of that mass of water as bare of wood, and solely 

 covered with marshy plains. 



Lake Tanganyika lies 200 miles S.W. of the Victoria N'yanza, 

 between lat. 3 and 7 45' S., at an elevation of 1844 feet above the 



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