68 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



As no further information about the lake could 

 be gained, I bade Mahaya and the Shaykh adieu 

 on the 6th, leaving as a token of recollection one 

 shukka Amerikan for the former, one dhoti kiniki 

 for his wife, and a fundo of beads for the poor Arab, 

 and retraced my steps by a double march back to 

 UkumbL Whilst passing alongside the archipelago, 

 I shot two geese and a crested crane. What a pity 

 it seemed I could not pluck the fruit almost within 

 my grasp ! Had I had but a little more time, and a 

 few loads of beads, I could with ease have crossed 

 the Line, and settled every question which we had 

 come all this distance to ascertain. Indeed, to per- 

 form that work, nobody could have started under 

 more advantageous circumstances than were then 

 within my power, all hands being in first-rate con- 

 dition and health, and all in the right temper for it. 

 But now a new and expensive expedition must be 

 formed, for the capabilities of the country on the 

 eastern flank of the Mountains of the Moon, and 

 along the western shores of the K'yanza, are so 

 notoriously great that it is worthy of serious atten- 

 tion. My reluctance to return may be easier imagined 

 than described. I felt as much tantalised as the un- 

 happy Tantalus must have been when unsuccessful in 

 his bobbings for cherries in the cherry-orchard, and as 

 much grieved as any mother would be at losing her 

 first-born, and resolved and planned forthwith to do 

 everything that lay in my power to visit the lake again. 



