66 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AXD SPORT. 



standing out like paps on the soft placid bosom of 

 the waters, and are precisely similar to those amongst 

 which I have been travelling ; indeed, any part of the 

 country inundated to the same extent would wear the 

 same aspect. Its water appears, perhaps owing to the 

 disturbing influence of the wind, of a dirty-white 

 colour ; but it is very good and sweet, though not so 

 pleasant to my taste as the very clear Tanganyika 

 water. The natives, however, who have wonderfully 

 keen palates for detecting the relative distinctions in 

 such matters, differ from me, and affirm that all the 

 inhabitants prefer it to any other, and consequently 

 never dig wells on the margin of the lake ; whereas 

 the Tanganyika water is invariably shunned, nobody 

 ever drinking it unless from necessity ; not so much 

 because they consider it to be unwholesome, as be- 

 cause it does not quench or satisfy the thirst so well 

 as spring- water. Whether this peculiarity in the 

 qualities of the waters is to be attributed to the N'y- 

 anza lying on a foundation chiefly composed of iron, 

 or whether the one lake is drained by a river, whilst 

 the other is stagnant, I must leave for other and 

 superior talents to decide. Fish and crocodiles are 

 said to be very abundant in the lake ; but with all 

 my endeavours to obtain some specimens, I have suc- 

 ceeded in seeing only two sorts one similar to those 

 taken at Ujiji, of a perch-like form, and another, very 

 small, resembling our common minnow, but not found 

 in the Ujiji market. The quantity of mosquitoes on 



