910 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



yards of the papyrus plants, until we were stopped by mud-banks, black as 

 pitch, enclosing slime and puddles seething with animal life. I caused four 

 men to stand in the boat, and climbing on their shoulders, with an oar for 

 support I tried to obtain a general view of what lay ahead and around us. I 

 saw the bed of the creek or river choked from bank to bank with the papyrus 

 plants, except where they enclosed small pools of still water, while about a 

 mile or so higher up I saw trees which seemed to me to stand exactly in 

 the bed. Descending from my uneasy perch, I caused two of my men to 

 proceed in opposite ways on the mud towards the banks. Perceiving, after 

 watching them a short time, that the muddy ooze was not firm enough to sus- 

 tain a man's weight I recalled them, and returned to open water again. 



" I now began another experiment to test the existence of a current. I 

 took a piece of board, with which I had provided myself beforehand, and cut 

 out a disc a foot in diameter. Into this disc I bored four holes, through 

 which I rove a stout cord and suspended to it at the distance of five feet an 

 earthenware pot, which, filled with water and held in suspension by the 

 board, would unmistakably mark the existence of a current. Into one side 

 of the board I drove a long spike with a small ball of cotton tied round the 

 head. This done I measured along a straight reach of water one thousand 

 feet with a tape line, both ends of the track distinctly marked by a riband of 

 sheeting tied to the papyrus. When these preparations had been completed 

 I proceeded to the south-easternmost end, and in the centre of the creek 

 dropped the disc and the attached pot in the water, noting the time by 

 chronometer, while we rowed a way from it. The monsoon wind blew very 

 strongly at the time. The distance which the disc floated between 23h. 22m. 

 20s. and 24h. 22m. was 822ft. from S.E. to N.W. Second attempt, afternoon, 

 wind having dropped, disc floated from N.W. to S.E. — that is, lake wards — 

 159ft. in 19m. 30s. 



" This closed our experiment for the first day. The second day, with 

 fifteen of the expedition, accompanied by the chief and ten of his people, we 

 started afoot north-westwards. Keeping as closely as the nature of the bushes 

 and the watercourses would permit to the Lukuga, I observed that the trend 

 of the watercourses and streams was from north-west to south and S.S.- 

 Easterly. After a march of a couple of hours we came to Elwani Village, 

 where the road from Monyis to Unguvwa and Luwelezi crossed the Lukuga. 

 At Elwani we augmented our party by two of the villagers, and then de- 

 scended by a gentle slope to the Mitwansi. At the base of the slope we came 

 to the bed occupied by the Kibamiba and Lukuga. The former was a small 

 sluggish stream with a trend south-easterly. Crossing this we came to the 

 dried bed of a periodical river ; whether it should be called the Lukuga or 

 the Kibamiba it would be difficult to say. Prostrate and withered water- 

 cane showed that the flow of the water in the season was lakewards. A few 



