50 LIVINGSTONE'S LAST JOURNALS. [Chai\ II. 



which it is impossible to fathom : half the water runs north- 

 ward into Egypt ; half to the south towards Ethiopia." 



Four fountains rising so near to each other would readily 

 be supposed to have one source, and half the water flowing- 

 into the Nile and the other half to the Zambesi, required 

 but little imagination to originate, seeing the actual visitor 

 would not feel bound to say how the division was effected. 

 He could only know the fact of waters rising at one spot, 

 and separating to flow north and south. The conical tops to 

 the moimd look like invention, as also do the names. 



A slave, bought on Lualaba East, came from Lualaba 

 West in about twelve days : these two Lualabas may form 

 the loop depicted by Ptolemy, and upper and lower Tangan- 

 yika be a third arm of the Nile. 



Patience is all I can exercise : these irritable ulcers hedge 

 me in now, as did my attendants in June, but all will be for 

 the best, for it is in Providence and not in me. 



The watershed is between 700 and 800 miles long from 

 west to east, or say from 22° or 23° to 34° or 35° East longi- 

 tude. Parts of it are enormous sponges ; in other parts innu- 

 merable rills unite into rivulets, which again form rivers — 

 Lufira, for instance, has nine rivulets, and Lekulwe other 

 nine. The convex surface of the rose of a garden watering- 

 can is a tolerably apt similitude, as the rills do not spring 

 off the face of it, and it is 700 miles across the circle ; but 

 in the numbers of rills coming out at different heights on 

 the slope, there is a faint resemblance, and I can at present 

 think of no other example. 



I am a little thankful to old Nile for so hiding his head' 

 that all " theoretical discoverers " are left out in the cold. 

 With all real explorers I have a hearty sympathy, and I 

 have some regret at being obliged, in a manner compelled, 

 to speak somewhat disparagingly of the opinions formed 

 by my predecessors. The work of Speke and Grant is part 

 of the history of this region, and since the discovery of the 



