1868.] THE LAKE MOERO. 209 



I long for others, for milk is the most strengthening food I 

 can get. 



My guide to Moero came to-day, and I visited the Lake 

 several times, so as to get a good idea of its size. The first 

 fifteen miles in the north are from twelve or more to thirty- 

 three miles broad. The great mass of the Kua Mountains 

 confines it. Thus in a clear day a lower range is seen con- 

 tinued from the high point of the first mass away to the 

 west south-west, this ends, and sea horizon is alone visible 

 away to the south and west; from the height we viewed it at, 

 the width must be over forty, perhaps sixty miles. A large 

 island, called Kirwa,* is situated between the Mandapala and 

 Kabukwa Rivers, but nearest to the other shore. The natives 

 never attempt to cross any part of the Lake south of this 

 Kirwa. Land could not be seen with a good glass on the 

 clearest day we had. I can understand why the natives 

 pronounced Moero to be larger than Tanganyika : in the 

 last named they see the land always on both sides; it is 

 like a vast trough flanked with highlands, but at Moero 

 nothing but sea horizon can be seen when one looks south- 

 west of the Rua Mountains. 



At the Kalongosi meadow one of Mohamad's men shot 

 a buffalo, and he gave me a leg of the good beefy flesh. 

 Our course was slow, caused partly by rains, and partly by 

 waiting for the convoy. The people at Kalongosi were 

 afraid to ferry us or any of his people in the convoy out of 

 Casembe's country ; but at last we gave a good fee, and 

 their scruples yielded : they were influenced also by seeing 

 other villagers ready to undertake the job ; the latter 

 nearly fought over us on seeing that their neighbours got 

 all the fare. 



We then came along the Lake, and close to its shores. 



* Kirwa and its various corruptions, such as Shirwa, Chirua, and 

 Kiroa, perpetually recur in Africa, and would almost seem to stand for 

 " the island."— Ed. 



