6 



THE LAKE EEGI0NS OF CENTEAL AFEICA. 



yembe in the centre, Ufyoma and Utumbara in the 

 north-west, Unyangwira in the south-east, Usagozi and 

 Usumbwa to the westward. The three normal divisions 

 of the people are into Wanyamwezi, Wasukuma or 

 northern, and Watakama or southern. 



The general character of Unyamwezi is rolling ground, 

 intersected with low conical and tabular hills, whose lines 

 ramify in all directions. No mountain is found in the 

 country. The superjacent stratum is clay, overlying the 

 sandstone based upon various granites, which in some 

 places crop out, picturesquely disposed in blocks and 

 boulders and huge domes and lumpy masses ; ironstone is 

 met with at a depth varying from five to twelve feet, and 

 at Kazeh, the Arab settlement in Unyanyembe, bits of 

 coarse ore were found by digging not more than four 

 feet in a chance spot. During the rains a coat of 

 many-tinted greens conceals the soil ; in the dry sea- 

 son the land is grey, lighted up by golden stubbles 

 and dotted with wind-distorted trees, shallow swamps 

 of emerald grass, and wide sheets of dark mud. 

 Dwarfed stumps and charred " black-jacks " deform 

 the fields, which are sometimes ditched or hedged in, 

 whilst a thin forest of parachute-shaped thorns diver- 

 sifies the waves of rolling land and earth-hills spotted 

 with sun-burnt stone. The reclaimed tracts and clear- 

 ings are divided from one another by strips of primaeval 

 jungle, varying from two to twelve miles in length. As 

 in most parts of Eastern Africa, the country is dotted 

 with " fairy mounts " — dwarf mounds, the ancient sites 

 of trees now crumbled to dust, and the debris of insect 

 architecture ; they appear to be rich ground, as they are 

 always diligently cultivated. The yield of the soil, ac- 

 cording to the Arabs, averages sixty-fold, even in un- 

 favourable seasons. 



