510 PHENOMENON OF THE LOTEMBWA. 



by digging with sticks a few feet beneath the surface. "We had 

 thus an opportunity of observing the state of these remarkable 

 plains at different seasons of the year. Next day we pursued our 

 way, and on the 8th of June we forded the Loternbwa to the N. W. 

 of Dilolo, and regained our former path. 



The Loternbwa here is about a mile wide, about three feet deep, 

 and full of the lotus, papyrus, arum, mat-rushes, and other aquatic 

 plants. I did not observe the course in which the water flowed 

 while crossing ; but, having noticed before that the Loternbwa on 

 the other side of the Lake Dilolo flowed in a southerly direction, I 

 supposed that this was simply a prolongation of the same river 

 beyond Dilolo, and that it rose in this large marsh, which we had 

 not seen in our progress to the N.W. But when we came to the 

 Southern Loternbwa, we were informed by Shakatwala that the 

 river we had crossed flowed in an opposite direction — not into Di- 

 lolo, but into the Kasai. This phenomenon of a river running in 

 opposite directions struck even his mind as strange ; and, though 

 I did not observe the current, simply from taking it for granted 

 that it was toward the lake, I have no doubt that his assertion, 

 corroborated as it was by others, is correct, and that the Dilolo is 

 actually the watershed between the river systems that flow to the 

 east and west. 



I would have returned in order to examine more carefully this 

 most interesting point, but, having had my lower extremities 

 chilled in crossing the Northern Loternbwa, I was seized with 

 vomiting of blood, and, besides, saw no reason to doubt the native 

 testimony. The distance between Dilolo and the valleys leading 

 to that of the Kasai is not more than fifteen miles, and the plains 

 between are perfectly level ; and, had I returned, I should only 

 have found that this little lake Dilolo, by giving a portion to the 

 Kasai and another to the Zambesi, distributes its waters to the 

 Atlantic and Indian Oceans. I state the fact exactly as it opened 

 to my own mind, for it was only now that I apprehended the true 

 form of the river systems and continent. I had seen the various 

 rivers of this country on the western side flowing from the sub- 

 tending ridges into the centre, and had received information from 

 natives and Arabs that most of the rivers on the eastern side of 

 the same great region took a somewhat similar course from an el- 

 evated ridge there, and that all united in two main drains, the one 



