MAHAGI VILLAGE. 159 



the south-west of Fatiko ; it is much smaller than the others. 

 I have also heard of other very hot springs which are to be 

 found in a district called Turkan, twelve days' march to the 

 east and south-east of Fatiko. It is from Turkan that camels 

 have been brought here, which still thrive. The well is said 

 to consist of a deep circular basin in the rocks. 



Steaming on towards the south, past a narrow tract of level 

 land, the mountains became higher and higher, and behind 

 them another parallel chain was seen at intervals. Several 

 large villages and extensive fields of durrah were noticed upon 

 the heights. The highest mountain has two peaks ; it is pro- 

 bably 3000 feet above the level of the lake. After we had 

 steamed for some time along a widening tract of low land, we 

 landed, at 1.24 P.M., at Mason's Mahagi. The time occupied 

 in steaming from our station to this point was four and a 

 half hours, but twenty minutes must be deducted, as this time 

 was occupied in circumnavigating the shallows. We anchored 

 in ten feet of water in a kind of bay. The depth of the 

 water throughout our journey varied from twenty to fifty feet. 

 It appears as if the western part of the lake is shallowing 

 considerably, if indeed the whole lake is not gradually becoming 

 smaller. The little bay is surrounded by a broad strip of 

 land covered with gravel ; no shells are to be found here, and 

 at station Mahagi they are very rare, whereas on the eastern 

 side of the lake the shore is perfectly covered with univalves, 

 and more rarely with bivalves, in many places, such as Ronga 

 and Kibiro. In their place, however, we find crocodile egg- 

 shells in great numbers, crocodiles being very numerous in the 

 lake. High hills covered by grass form the commencement of 

 the mountains, which present imposing outlines towards the 

 south. There are extensive banana groves between the hills, 

 and solitary sycamores having large edible fruits. On one of 

 the trees I had the good fortune to shoot a specimen of the 

 rare Treron nudirostris. I noticed here a stately tree which 

 had large sweet fruits containing a long seed exactly like the 

 fruit of the dog-rose ; * the fruit is eaten by birds and insects. 

 The watercourses are fringed by great thickets of reeds, and 

 here and there fields of sesame and durrah show that the 



* Probably a species of Miinusops. — G. S. 



