5 30 General Notes. [June, 



Thus, Mr. O'Neill kept to the south of the Upper Makua country, 

 the Rev. Chauncy Maples to the middle part, and he (Mr. Thom- 

 son) along the northern boundary up the river Rovuma and the 

 Lujende. From the reports of those travelers, together with the 

 accounts given by Bishop Steere and Von der Decken further 

 north, it was very evident that the same natural features extended 

 from the Rufigi to the Zambesi, viz : a slightly undulating and 

 irregular country, at one time spreading out in a great plain, at 

 another forming a narrow valley; while small ridges of hills and 

 isolated picturesque peaks diversified the scenery. 



Geologically, the country consisted of metamorphic schists, 

 . gneiss, and granite. The schists had been worn away and washed 

 down, forming the plains in the valleys ; while the bosses of hard, 

 compact rock had remained as the ridges of hills and isolated 

 peaks. Of course, the most interesting part of Mr. O'Neill's 

 journey, was the neighborhood of the mountain range in Makua, 

 and the strange peak Namuli. That range evidently marked the 

 commencement of the central plateau; and as to the peak 

 Namuli, there could be little doubt that it was snow-clad, because 

 Mr. Maples obtained his information about it from sources quite 

 independent of Mr. O'Neill, and the reports of the two travelers 

 were exactly identical. Considering its position, it must be over 

 16,000 feet high to be snow-clad. He had no doubt that it would 

 prove to be volcanic ; and if so, it would form another link in the 

 chain from the Red Sea to the Cape, which had given rise to the 

 volcanic deposits in Abyssina at Kilimanjaro, and the enormous 

 series of tufas and lavas which he (Mr. Thomson) discovered 

 round the north end of Nyassa. That line of volcanoes coincided 

 with the line of weakness and dislocation, along which the east- 

 ern side of the continent had been upheaved. . The areas of de- 

 pression, Nyassa and Tanganyika, were also approximately paral- 

 lel to the line of dislocation." 



Mr. O'Neill also mentioned an error in the map, by Dr. Peter- 

 mann 1 in which two lakes appear situated on a tributary of the 

 Lurio, one of which is placed in the heart of Makuani. " I made 

 careful and constant inquiries with respect to these lakes, and was 



every where assured that no such e 



•xi^h-cl in 



the Makua < 



:ountry 



or upon any 





>. The 



nly lake thai 





hear of, is that of Kilvva, in the Aj; 





:ry, which, as 



, I have 



before said, is 



i reported to be the sc< 



jurce of tl 



lie Liendi. It seems 



not improbable, that there has been 



some con 



fusion between these 



lakes. This p 



robability is strengthen 



ed by the 



native state m 



, which 



the Lake Kil< 



iva is situated in a dist 



rict called Ml 



name I find 



upon the shore of th 





most lake ir 



! Peter- 



Abyssinia.— M. Raffray, French Vice-Consul at IV 

 recent journey to the camp of the King of Abys: 



1 See Map No. 71. Sud Afrika und Madagaskar Stieler's Atlas. 



