304 



THE STILL LAIvE. 



Tanganyika is a still lake. This view, however, 

 appeared a strange hvdrographical puzzle to 

 geographers, who were not slow to combat it. 

 Messrs Vaux and Galton, and my kind friend 

 Mr Eindlay, who has never ceased to impress the 

 public with what he holds to be the true state of 

 the case, doubted that an immense reservoir 250 

 miles long, situated at a considerable altitude in 

 the African zone of almost constant rain, whose 

 potable waters are free of saline substances 

 washed down by its tributaries from the area of 

 drainage, and which shows no marks of great 

 accession of level, can maintain these conditions 

 without efflux. The most natural explanation 

 was to make the Marungu, Luapula, or Eunangwa 

 river, at the southern extremity of the Tangan- 

 yika, act outlet, and drain it to theXyassa or Kilwa 

 Lake, bearing S. 55^ East, and distant 340 to 350 

 miles. The universal testimony of the natives to 

 its being an influent formed in the mind of my 

 companion (Journal, p. 90) six years afterwards 

 ' the most conclusive argument that it does run 

 out of the lake.' It did not appear equally con- 

 clusive to others. 



The absence of all connection, however, be- 

 tween the Tanganyika and the Nyassa Lakes 

 was proved by Dr Livingstone's second expedi- 



