1868.] LAKE NYASSA DRAINS SOUTHWAEDS. 343 



•of climate, possibly similar and cotemporaneous with that 

 which has dried up the Dead Sea. 



The journey of Ezra was undertaken after a fast at the 

 Eiver Ahava. With nearly 50,000 people he had only about 

 8000 beasts of burden. He was ashamed to ask a band of 

 soldiers and horsemen for protection in the way. It took 

 about four months to reach Jerusalem ; this would give five 

 and a half or six miles a day, as the crow flies, which is equal 

 to twelve or fifteen miles of surface travelled over; this 

 bespeaks a country capable of yielding both provisions and 

 water, such as cannot now be found. Ezra would not have 

 been ashamed to ask for camels to carry provisions and 

 water had the country been as dry as it is now. The 

 prophets, in telling all the woes and miseries of. the cap- 

 tivities, never allude to suffering or perishing by thirst in 

 the way, or being left to rot in the route as^African slaves 

 are now in a well-watered country. Had the route to 

 Assyria been then as it is now, they could scarcely have 

 avoided referring to the thirst of the way;Jbut everything 

 else is mentioned except that. 



Eespecting this system of Lakes in the centre of Africa, 

 it will possibly occur to some that Lake Nyassa may give 

 a portion of its water off from its northern end to the Nile, 

 but this would imply a Lake giving off a river at both ends ; 

 the country, too, on the north-north-west and north-east 

 rises to from 4000 to 6000 feet above the sea, and there 

 is not the smallest indication that Nyassa and Tanganyika 

 were ever connected. Lake Liemba is the most southerly 

 part of Tanganyika ; its latitude is 8° 46' south ; the most 

 northerly point of Lake Nyassa is probably 10° 56' — 8° 46' 

 = 2° 10'. Longitude of Liemba 34° 57' - 31° 57' = 3° 00' 

 = 180' of longitude. Of latitude 130' + 180' = 310', two- 

 thirds of which is about 206', the distance between two 

 Lakes ; and no evidence of fissure, rent, or channel now 

 appears on the highland between. 



