50 THE RIVER ZAMBEZI AND ITS SCENERY 

 recoUcetion of it the river is distinctly changing for 

 the worse ; that at such and such a point where he 

 used to get good, bold water up to August, he 

 cannot now pass after the middle of June, and 

 that there can be no doubt that the river is growing 

 shallower and shallower year by year. 



In the Shire, which, as we have seen, drains 

 Lake Nyasa into the Zambezi, an even more 

 singular phenomenon presents itself. Of late years, 

 so little has this river been influenced by the 

 annual rainfalls that the utmost difficulty has been 

 experienced in keeping communication open even 

 so far as Chiromo, the port of entry of the Nyasa- 

 land Protectorate. Ten years ago, whilst I was 

 serving in that part of the country, the annual 

 rainfall amounted to between 50 and 60 inches, and 

 raised the level of the lake about 5 ft., this im- 

 mense volume of water draining down through the 

 Shire, and keeping that river open to navigation 

 usually until late in the month of June. Now, 

 although the Nyasaland rainfall has in nowise 

 diminished since the period I have mentioned, its 

 effect in raising the level of Lake Nyasa is not, I 

 am informed, more than half what it used to be, 

 and the lake, therefore, instead of rising to the 

 height to which it formerly attained, scarcely ever 

 adds more than 2 ft. to its dry-season level. 

 Where does all this water go to ? The only 

 comprehensible explanation which has so far been 

 offered is to the effect that Nyasa may have sprung 

 some terrific leak, and that in some portion of the 

 continent stiU to be explored, but most probably 

 low down on the almost unknown, eastern, coast- 



