Chap. XIX. LAKE NYASSA. 369 



100 fathoms, though outside the same bay we found none 

 with a fishing-line of 116 fathoms : but this cast was unsatis- 

 factory, as the line broke in coming up. According to our 

 present knowledge, a ship could anchor only near the shore." 



Looking back to the southern end of Lake Nyassa, the 

 arm from which the Shire flows was found to be about thirty 

 miles long and from ten to twelve broad. Hounding Cape 

 Maclear, and looking to the south-west, we have another 

 arm, which stretches some eighteen miles southward, and 

 is from six to twelve miles in breadth. These arms give the 

 southern end a forked appearance, and with the help of 

 a little imagination it may be likened to the " boot-shape " 

 of Italy. The narrowest part is about the ankle, eighteen or 

 twenty miles. From this it widens to the north, and in the 

 upper third or fourth it is fifty or sixty miles broad. The 

 length is over 200 miles. The direction in which it lies 

 is as near as possible due north and south. Nothing of the 

 great bend to the west, shown in all the previous maps, could 

 be detected by either compass or chronometer, and the watch 

 we used was an excellent one. The season of the year was 

 very unfavourable. The " smokes " filled the air with an 

 impenetrable haze, and the equinoctial gales made it 

 impossible for us to cross to the eastern side. When 

 we caught a glimpse of the sun rising from behind the 

 mountains to the east, we made sketches and bearings of 

 them at different latitudes, which enabled us to secure ap- 

 proximate measurements of the width. These agreed with 

 the times taken by the natives at the different crossing- 

 places — as Tsenga, and Molamba. About the beginning of 

 the upper third the lake is crossed by taking advantage of 

 the island Chizumara, which name in the native tongue 

 means the " ending ; " further north they go round the end 

 instead, though that takes several days. 



2 B 



