HEAPS OF CAMELS' BONES 105 



debris. We liad to kill many of tlie oxen, and two of our 

 calves were carried in improvised hammocks. 



Of course under sucli distressing conditions the spirits of 

 the men were at a low ebb. We had only food enough left to 

 last with the greatest care for eight days longer, and we could 

 not hope to reach the inhabited northern end of the lake in 

 that time. But there appeared to be no way out of the mono- 

 tonous wilderness, and it seemed as if we should not have long 

 to rejoice in our discovery of the lake. We decided finally to 

 leave the shore and try and get to the people living on Mount 

 Kulall, where perhaps our prospects might brighten a little. 



Friday^ March 9. — We marched for two hours more along 

 the beach and then turned away from the lake towards Mount 

 Kulall, which came into view as the spurs, running from north 

 to south, along which we had till now been journeying, gradu- 

 ally disappeared. At first the path led up at a height of from 

 about fifty to sixty feet above the lake, at which altitude we 

 found the ground strewn with whole beds of oysterrlike shells.^ 

 This might be taken as a proof that the level of the lake must 

 at one time have been considerably higher ; even the submerged 

 trees not proving its having been lower. But in a district of 

 apparently such recent volcanic origin changes of level may 

 well have taken place in a comparatively short space of time. 



To-day also the path was strewn with the skeletons of 

 camels, goats, and sheep, and at one place, just at the base of 

 a steep ascent of from thirteen to sixteen feet high, we came 

 upon a regular heap of camels' bones. There must have been 

 the remains of some two hundred animals in one pile, and 

 though the bones were already bleaching in the sun, there was 

 still an odour .of putrid flesh about them. We were at a loss to 



^ According to Prof. Dr. E. Suesz identical with tlieEtlieria found in the Nile and 

 the great Central African lakes, with the exception of Lake Tanganyika, which 

 possesses a unique and older fresh-water fauna of its own. 



