I.AKE DIWTO A WATERSHED. 439 



plains at different seasons of the year. Next day we 

 pursued our way, and on the 8th of June, we forded the 

 Lotembwa to the N.W. of Dilolo, and regained our former 

 path. 



The IyOtembwa here is about a mile wide, about three 

 feet deep, and full of the lotus, papyrus, arum, mat-rushes, 

 and other aquatic plants. I did not observe the course 

 in which the water flowed, while crossing ; but, having 

 noticed before that the Lotembwa on the other side of 

 the lake Dilolo flowed in a southerly direction, I supposed 

 that this was simply a prolongation of the same river 

 beyond Dilolo, and that it rose in this large marsh, which 

 we had not seen in our progress to the N.W. But when 

 we came to the Southern I,otembwa, we were informed 

 by Shakatwala that the river we had crossed flowed in 

 an opposite direction, — not into Dilolo, but into the Kasai. 

 This phenomenon of a river running in opposite directions 

 struck even his mind as strange ; and, though I did not 

 observe the current, simply from taking it for granted 

 that it was towards the lake, I have no doubt that his 

 assertion, corroborated as it was by others, is correct, 

 and that the Dilolo is actually the watershed between 

 the river systems that flow to the east and west. 



I would have returned, in order to examine more care- 

 fully this most interesting point, but, having had my 

 lower extremities chilled in crossing the Northern I^o- 

 tembwa, I was seized with vomiting of blood, and, besides, 

 saw no reason to doubt the native testimony. The 

 distance between Dilolo and the valleys leading to that 

 of the Kasai is not more than fifteen miles, and the plains 

 between are perfectly level ; and, had I returned, I should 

 only have found that this little lake Dilolo, by giving 

 a portion to the Kasai and another to the Zambesi, dis- 

 tributes its waters to the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. 

 I state the fact exactly as it opened to my own mind ; 

 for it was only now that I apprehended the true form 

 of the river systems and continent. I had seen the 

 various rivers of this country on the western side flowing 

 from the subtending ridges into the centre, and had re- 

 ceived information from natives and Arabs, that most 

 of the rivers on the eastern side of the same great region 

 took a somewhat similar course from an elevated ridge 

 there, and that all united in two main drains, the one 

 flowing to the N. and the other to the S., and that the 



