A STORM ON THE LAKE. 169 



atmospheric pressure, and an attempt to determine the elevation 

 of Mahagi with a boiling-point thermometer, for the purpose 

 of checking previous determinations, was therefore a failure. 

 In the night this low pressure was compensated for. It had 

 begun to blow hard in the evening, and thunder and light- 

 ning, with rain, in the south, held out no promising prospect 

 for the night ; the storm kept off, however, until midnight. 

 The steamer rode in deep water, and was protected by the 

 island against the force of the waves coming in from the south, 

 so that the storm passed away over our heads. But about 

 midnight the wind veered round to the east-north-east, and 

 the steamer then became fully exposed to the violent buffets of 

 the angry waves. The rain came down in torrents. To make 

 matters worse, the anchor dragged, and in a moment the 

 steamer was aground, but fortunately in mud and sand. Every 

 time the white-crested waves struck the broadside of the boat 

 they made her heel over. In spite of all our united endea- 

 vours, we were quite unable to free her from her unpleasant 

 position, but by casting out another anchor, and by its means 

 hauling the ship round, we managed to turn her so far as to 

 present her stern instead of her side to the direct force of the 

 waves ; even then she felt the shock through all her timbers. 



The storm subsided about five in the morning, and the rain 

 ceased ; I at once got all hands to work, threw out another 

 anchor, and by reversing our engine, we were able to haul 

 the ship off the mud. About seven o'clock we got afloat, 

 and after repairing minor damages, we started half an hour 

 later to cross over to the east side of the lake. It was still 

 blowing stiff, and the foam-covered waters beyond the narrow 

 extremity of the island looked anything but assuring ; and, 

 in fact, we had scarcely passed that point when the game 

 began ; in a very short time a large part of my people were 

 prostrated with veritable sea-sickness, and notwithstanding 

 that the motion of the water, and consequently of the boat, 

 was soon greatly moderated, my suffering companions did not 

 recover until we got under the shelter of the land. In a 

 southerly and south-south-easterly direction, the brave Khedive 

 steamed merrily onwards, frequently passing obliquely through 

 large shoals of fish, which doubtless felt more comfortable 



