THE TANGANYIKA PROBLEM. 115 
steppes over which the fierce tropical sun blazed without 
any protection for many hours during the day. In such 
places the noon-day heat is fearful, and the men on this 
particular occasion, as is often the case on exposed plains 
near the Equator, were hardly able to walk with their bare 
The pebble beaches of the West Coast of the Albert Edward Nyanza and old 
water-marks. 
feet on the hot ground. The surface of the earth was 
desiccated and sandy, but a few inches below there was an 
appreciable amount of moisture, due to the occasional 
storms which sweep over such plains and disappear almost 
as quickly as they form. Nothing but grass grew near the 
lake, and even this had evidently had a very bad time, for 
it was scraggy and white and bleached, and alternated with 
8 * 
