1 88 2.] Geography and Travels. 529 



Lake Tanganyika. The water however, continues to fall in the 

 Nyassa.and also in the river Shire, and the navigation of the lat- 

 ter is increasingly difficult. The careful observations on the 

 changes in the water-level made during the past four or five years, 

 will prove, of much practical as well as scientific importance. 



O'Neill's Journey in Makua Land.— In the Naturalist for 

 April last, we gave a short account of recent journeys in the 

 Makua country lying west from Mozambique. An interesting 

 paper by one of these travelers, Mr. O'Neill, British Consul at 

 Mozambique, was read at a recent meeting of the Royal Geo- 

 graphical Society. 1 As was stated by Lord Aberdare, the Presi- 

 dent of the Society, " a remarkable fact in connection with the 

 subject, is that the vast territory of Mozambique for the last 200 

 years had been in the possession of the Portuguese, and yet, so far 

 as could be ascertained, no Portuguese of unmixed blood had ever 

 been more than twenty miles inland." 



One of the most interesting features of this journey, is the in- 

 telligence thus obtained of the existence of a lofty snow-clad 

 peak in this part of the African continent. It is doubtless the 

 same mountain Mr. Maples heard of when at Meto. Mr. O'Neill 

 writes: — "Whilst at Namurola, I also ascended a hill 500 or 600 

 feet high, and had a fair view of the mountain range which rises 

 up west of the valley of the Malema, culminating in the Inagu 

 Hills and Namuli Peak, and forming, if native accounts be cor- 

 rect, the water-shed of the rivers of the Mozambique coast, and 

 those that on its western side help to feed the Lake Kilwa 2 and 

 its outlet, the Lujende or Liendi. I wish, however, distinctly to 

 say, that although the position of Namuli Peak was pointed out 

 to me, I could not clearly distinguish it. A magnificent range 

 of hills was visible, running apparently north-east and south-west, 

 but the summits of its peaks and many of the hills themselves were 

 totally lost in the mass of cloud and mist which the southerly 

 winds had been drifting up during the past week, and which were, 

 even now, descending as the first of the rains. I have concluded 

 that this peak is snow-clad from the repeated accounts I have re- 

 ceived, not only from coast men who have traded in the Malema 

 valley, but also from chiefs and others who live comparatively near 

 the spot. The usual description of it is, "Its top is always white,' 

 and ' Mnwisho zake huwezi kuma,' or * Its summit is invisible; " 



In an address made by Mr. Joseph Thomson after the reading 

 ot this paper, he said, " It was a very interesting and suggestive 

 la ct, that three Englishmen should have been traveling in the 

 same country at the same time without any knowledge of each 

 other's movements, and yet, not infringingon each other's districts. 



