58 RAINFALL UP THE ZAMBESI. Chap. II. 



another leak in the forward compartment, or in the 

 middle, which was worse still. 



Frequent showers fell on our way up the Zambesi, in 

 the beginning of August. On the 8th we had upwards of 

 three inches of rain, which large quantity, more than falls 

 in any single rainy day during the season at Tette, we 

 owed to being near the sea. Sometimes the cabin was 

 nearly flooded ; for, in addition to the leakage from below, 

 rain poured through the roof, and an umbrella had to be 

 used whenever we wished to write : the mode of coupling 

 the compartments, too, was a new one, and the action of 

 the hinder compartment on the middle one pumped up the 

 water of the river, and sent it in streams over the floor 

 and lockers, where lay the cushions which did double duty 

 as chairs and beds. In trying to form an opinion of the 

 climate, it must be recollected that much of the fever, 

 from which we suffered, was caused by sleeping on these 

 wet cushions. Many of the botanical specimens, labori- 

 ously collected and carefully prepared by Dr. Kirk, were 

 destroyed, or double work imposed, by their accidentally 

 falling into wet places in the cabin. 



About the middle of August, after cutting wood at 

 Shamoara, we again steamed up the Shire, with the inten- 

 tion of becoming better acquainted with the people, and 

 making another and longer journey on foot to the north 

 of Lake Shirwa, in search of Lake Nyassa, of which we 

 had already received some information, under the name 

 Xyinyesi (the stars). The Shire is much narrower than 

 the Zambesi, but deeper, and more easily navigated. It 

 drains a low and exceedingly fertile valley of from fifteen 

 to twenty miles in breadth. Eanges of wooded hills 

 bound this valley on both sides. For the first twenty 

 miles the hills on the left bank are close to the river ; then 

 comes Morambala, a detached mountain 500 yards from 

 the river's brink, which rises, with steep sides on the west, 



