XIV RETURN TO LAKE RUDOLPH 339 



living here. The prevailing wind on the lake, as before noticed, 

 was from the south-east ; but whenever it changed to the north, 

 as it occasionally did for a day, bringing squally weather and 

 the thunderstorms already alluded to, the lake became dotted for 

 miles with floating islands of various sizes, some of them with 

 tall grass or rushes growing on them. These are evidently 

 masses of water-weed, detached by the strong northerly breeze 

 from great beds of floating vegetation formed about the mouth 

 of the river. They present a most curious and picturesque 

 spectacle drifting southward over the broad expanse of water ; 

 but, on the return of the prevailing southerly winds, they all 

 get backed up again at the northern extremity and leave the 

 water open once more. 



One of the natives who had accompanied me on my ill- 

 fated hunt of 1 ith January was an Mkwavi, though living 

 among the El Gume people at Bumi. He was rather a nice 

 fellow, and often came to see me and professed great friendship. 

 He said that his father had been a friend of Count Teleki's, 

 when that great traveller was here on his memorable journey 

 during which he discovered and named this lake, and he con- 

 sidered it a duty he inherited to be " the dog of the white man," 

 as he expressed it. Lekwari (such was his name) confirmed, 

 by his own evidence, what I had already gathered from the 

 testimony of the dead trees and bushes standing, more or less 

 submerged, in the lake, some of which are visible at a great 

 distance from the shore. He said that at the time Teleki was 

 here a great part of this corner of the lake was dry, and that 

 what was cultivated land in those days is now under water, 

 thus restricting the area of moist ground suitable for growing 

 crops. This accounts for the difference between the present 

 configuration of this end of the lake and Von Hohncl's map of 

 the part. During our chats he used to tantalise me with tales 

 of fabulous elephants with tusks to which those I had shot near 

 here on my way up were as nothing ! He compared their 

 thickness to the girth of his chest, and pointed to the central 



