3°2 
TIIE TANGANYIKA PROBLEM. 
If we examine the lake in April, we find that there are 
very few medusae to be obtained ; in fact the natives, who, 
unlike most Europeans, take a considerable interest in 
these matters, told me to begin with that there were none to 
be found at this time of the year, but after I had captured a 
large specimen myself, they informed me that they knew 
there were a few, but it took a great deal of trouble to find 
them till later in the season, and that, considering the state 
of the weather and the character of their boats, they had 
thought it better that I should be misinformed. They then 
volunteered some further rather startling and by no 
means incorrect, information. A well-made naked old 
man stood up upon a rock and gave me the following 
account: — “You white man,” he said, “have come from 
far, from the cold land of the white men who smell 
like game ; you come here with your long neck stretched 
out looking on the ground for that which is no use ; 
you have seen many lakes in the countries to the 
south, in Nyassa land, where a little childlike white man 
is chief, but all the lakes you have seen are different 
from Liemba (Tanganyika) : they are blind lakes, asleep, 
Liemba, on the other hand, has the eyes, one of which 
you have just found. In the rain Liemba also sleeps ; but 
when the clouds dissolve, and the night wind dies down 
before daylight as at this season, Tanganyika awakes like 
us, to look at the moon and the stars, and the lake is then 
full of eyes.” This somewhat remarkable native statement 
I found, however, as a matter of fact, to be true. During 
the end of the wet season at the south end of Tanganyika, 
that is in March, only a very few large medusae are to be 
found. These solitary adults have thick, well-developed 
manubriums, and, if they are carefully examined, it is found 
that the outer wall of this structure is studded all over with 
