320 FROM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



stretching as far as the Bomokandi river. He can supply- 

 as many as 2000 carriers. 



A few days later I left to ascend the Kibali, which has 

 never before been navigated. The mouth of the river is 

 divided into two by an island, above which there is a rapid 

 with a strong volume of water, formed by rocks and little 

 islands. After that there is a fine navigable reach all the 

 way to the Makassa Rapids. After thirty miles the river 

 takes a remarkable bend to the north, forming a loop, and 

 the hitherto flat bush country becomes broken on the south 

 bank by a semicircular group of igneous hills and kopjes, the 

 chief of which is Mount Arama, about 500 ft. in height, with 

 a bare cap shaped like a pepper-castor and bearing a striking 

 resemblance to the Wase Rock in Northern Nigeria. From 

 thence as one ascends the river, now eighty to a hundred yards 

 in width, towards Vankerckhovenville, the country directly 

 to the south and east is undulating, accentuated by ranges 

 of wooded hills running from west to east, and in places 

 cavernous and rugged. One of these, the Gaima range, 

 runs parallel to and within two miles of the left bank; 

 it is about 400 ft. high, clothed to its crest line with grass and 

 stunted trees, and the country beyond is broken by a group 

 of rocky hills. In these hills there are seams of magnetic 

 iron- ore, and I observed that there were many trees on the 

 watershed that had been struck by hghtning. The Momvus, 

 who are the inhabitants, told me that when there were 

 blacksmiths' villages on their tops many people every year 

 were killed by lightning. At the foot of this range a hut 

 during a terrific storm was set on fire and two of my " boys " 

 were knocked down and stunned, and a few days later 



