THE TANGANYIKA BASIN. 275 



Ruwenzori and through innumerable swamps. 

 I only once had a difficulty with her. This was 

 at a very deep narrow gully by the Kagera. We 

 threw some tree logs across, but she absolutely 

 refused to have anything to do with them. Then 

 I had the branches covered with a tarpaulin, but it 

 was still unsafe in her eyes. Her offspring was 

 then dragged bodily over, and having been blind- 

 folded, she was at last, amidst general rejoicing, 

 hauled across. She used to take her place in the 

 caravan, as she thoroughly understood the signals 

 of the drum, and used to follow me about the camp 

 for bananas. 



All this district — that is to say Usige and these 

 outlying hills north-west of Tanganyika — is extra- 

 ordinarily rich and very densely peopled. 



The day that we arrived, an Arab, who was settled 

 a little to the south, sent a messenger to me, and 

 I told him that I wanted a dhow to go down the 

 lake. Next morning the boat appeared, which was 

 a most extraordinary piece of good fortune. It is 

 true that it sailed on one side, and my caravan 

 was packed like sardines, in most uncomfortable 

 and ungainly attitudes, but it was most provi- 

 dential that it arrived just at that moment. 



We started at dusk, for at this season a 

 southerly wind usually springs up about 11 a.m. 

 and lasts till sunset. It was a delicious change to 

 lie on the deck in the cool of the evening after the 

 day's unutterable heat, and to listen to the chorus 



