DISCOVEKY OF THE VICTORIA N'YANZA. 51 



from north to south. But by his rough mode of 

 describing it, I am rather inclined to think that 

 instead of its being an actual island, it is a con- 

 nected tongue of land, stretching southwards from 

 a promontory lying at right angles to the eastern 

 shore of the lake, which, being a wash, affords a 

 passage to the mainland during the fine season, but 

 during the wet becomes submerged, and thus makes 

 Ukerewe temporarily an island. If this conjecture 

 be true, Mzita must be similarly circumstanced. 

 Cattle, he says, can cross over from the mainland at 

 all seasons of the year, by swimming from one eleva- 

 tion of the promontory to another ; but the Warudi, 

 who live upon the eastern shore of the lake, and 

 bring their ivory for sale to Ukerewe, usually employ 

 boats for the transit A sultan called Machunda 

 lives at the southern extremity of the Ukerewe, and 

 has dealings in ivory with all the Arabs who go there. 

 One Arab at this time was stopping there, and had 

 sent his men coasting along this said promontory to 

 deal with the natives on the mainland, as he could 

 not obtain enough ivory on the island itself. Con- 

 sidering how near the eastern shore of the lake is to 

 Zanzibar, it appears surprising that it can pay men to 

 carry ivory all the way round by Unyanyembe. But 

 the Masai, and especially those tribes who live near 

 to the lake, are so hostile to travellers, that the risk 

 of going there is considered too great to be profitable, 

 though all Arabs concur in stating that a surprising 



