692 LAKE TANGANYIKA. 



an expanse of the lightest and softest blue, In breadth varying 

 from thirty to thirty-five miles, and sprinkled by the crisp east 

 wind with tiny crescents of snowy foam. The background in 

 front is a high and broken wall of steel-colored mountain, here 

 flecked and capped with pearly mists, there standing sharply 

 pencilled against the azure air ; its yawning chasms marked by 

 a deeper plum-color, fall toward dwarf hills of mound-like pro- 

 portions, which apparently dip their feet in the wave. To the 

 south and opposite the long low point behind which the Mala- 

 garazi river discharges the red loam suspended in its volant 

 stream, lie the bluff headlands and capes of Uguhha, and as 

 the eye dilates it falls upon a cluster of outlying islets, speckling 

 a sea-horizon. Villages, cultivated lands, the frequent canoes 

 of fishermen on the waters, and on a nearer approach the mur^ 

 murs of the waves breaking on the shore, give something of 

 variety, of movement, of life to the landscape, which like all the 

 fairest prospects in these regions want but a little of the neatness 

 and finish of art — mosques and kiasks, palaces and villas, gar- 

 dens and orchards, contrasting with the profuse lavishness and 

 magnificence of nature, and diversifying the unbroken vegeta- 

 tion — to rival if not excel the most admired scenery of the classic 

 regions. The giant shores of this vast crevasse appeared doubly 

 beautiful after the silent and spectral mangrove creeks of the 

 sea-board, and the melancholy, monotonous experience of desert 

 and jungle scenery, tawny rock and sun-parched plain, rank 

 herbage and flats of black mire." It was such a scene as any 

 man would consider a compensation for all the toils and vexations 

 of the long way by which it is reached. 



But there were charms in Tanganyika for Mr. Stanley which 

 were not there for Burton. There by the side of the beautiful 

 water was the noble old man whom he had come to Africa to 

 find and relieve. He "descended the western slope of the 

 mountain with the Liuche river before him, and in an hour 

 came to the thick matete brake which grows on both banks of 

 it; then wading through the clear stream they emerged from 

 the brake and stood surrounded by the gardens of Ujiji, a marvel 

 of vegetable wealth. Almost overpowered by emotion, Mr. 

 Stanley could hardly see the graceful palms, neat plats, and 

 small villages with frail fences of cane. He pushed along 



