The Eastern Congo 



wonderful to relate, white ants, are not to be found* 

 here. 



At the time of our visit the Belgians were thinking of 

 making Kisenji the administrative headquarters for the 

 whole of Ruanda and Burundi. A large house had in fact 

 been built for the Governor, but I think these plans have 

 since been altered and Busumbura, on the north end of Lake 

 Tanganyika, will become the capital. 



Before passing on to the next chapter, which contains 

 details of the exploration of the volcanic region which I 

 was about to undertake, it will be as well to give my reader 

 some information regarding the Lake Kivu district from 

 several points of view, both scientific and otherwise. 



With a length of approximately sixty-five miles and 

 thirty in breadth. Lake Kivu, the last discovered of the 

 African lakes has this salient feature : that although its 

 waters now flow into Lake Tanganyika and so to the Congo 

 River, its fauna has no community of nature with that of 

 Tangan5dka, but must be classed with that of Lakes Edward 

 and Albert and the Nile system. 



To account for this, geologists tell us that at an earlier 

 but not very remote period there was a water basin extending 

 from Kivu north along the Rift valley as far as Lake Albert, 

 and that the present formation of Kivu was brought about 

 by a vast volcanic upheaval under the floor of this basin, 

 forming the Ufumbiro or Virunga Range of volcanoes. This 



* This interesting fact is to be explained as due primarily to the volcanic 

 nature of the country. There is no standing water where mosquito lavae may 

 exist, the porosity of the soil carrying off all rain-water directly. The rivers, 

 such as there are, are very swift, offering them no harbourage. The white ants 

 are unable to find suitable soil, and owing to long continued volcanic dis- 

 turbances in the neighbourhood, these pests have failed to find a footing. 



56 



