DISCOVERY OF THE VICTORIA N'YANZA. 47 



the visible north shore of this firth. The name of the 

 former of these islands was familiar to us as that by 

 which this long-desired lake was usually known. It 

 is reported by the natives to be of no great extent ; 

 and though of no considerable elevation, I could dis- 

 cover several spurs stretching down to the water's 

 edge from its central ridge of hills. The other island, 

 Mzita, is of greater elevation, of a hog-backed shape, 

 but being more distant, its physical features were not 

 so distinctly visible. In consequence of the northern 

 islands of the Bengal Archipelago before mentioned 

 obstructing the view, the western shore of the lake 

 could not be defined: a series of low hill-tops ex- 

 tended in this direction as far as the eye could reach; 

 while below me, at no great distance, was the de- 

 bouchure of the creek, which enters the lake from the 

 south, and along the banks of which my last three 

 days' journey had led me. This view was one which, 

 even in a well-known and explored country, would 

 have arrested the traveller by its peaceful beauty. 

 The islands, each swelling in a gentle slope to a 

 rounded summit, clothed with wood between the 

 rugged, angular, closely cropping rocks of granite, 

 seemed mirrored in the calm surface of the lake, on 

 which I here and there detected a small black speck, 

 the tiny canoe of some Muanza fisherman. On the 

 gently shelving plain below me, blue smoke curled 

 above the trees, which here and there partially con- 

 cealed villages and hamlets, their brown thatched 



