86 THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



to the girthing and the balancing of parcels — the great 

 secret of donkey-loading — consequently the burdens 

 were thrown at every mud or broken ground : the 

 unwilling Baloch only grumbled, sat down and stared, 

 leaving their Jemadars with Said bin Salim and our- 

 selves to reload. My companion and I brought up the 

 rear by alternate days, and sometimes we did not arrive 

 before the afternoon at the camping ground. The ropes 

 and cords intended to secure the herd were regularly 

 stolen, that I might be forced to buy others : the animals 

 were never pounded for the night, and during our illness 

 none of the party took the trouble to number them. 

 Thus several beasts were lost, and the grounding of the 

 Expedition appeared imminent and permanent. The 

 result was a sensation of wretchedness, hard to describe ; 

 every morning dawned upon me with a fresh load of 

 cares and troubles, and every evening reminded me as 

 it closed in, that another and a miserable morrow was to 

 dawn. But " in despair," as the Arabs say, " are many 

 hopes;" though sorrow endured for the night — and 

 many were " white" with anxiety — we never relinquished 

 the determination to risk everything, ourselves included, 

 rather than to return unsuccessful. 



Dut'humi, one of the most fertile districts in K'hutu, 

 is a plain of black earth and sand, choked with vegeta- 

 tion where not corrected by the axe. It is watered by 

 the perennial stream of the same name, which, rising 

 in the islands, adds its quotum to the waters of the 

 Mgazi, and eventually to the Mgeta and the Kingani 

 Rivers. In such places artificial irrigation is common, 

 the element being distributed over the fields by hollow 

 ridges. The mountains of Dut'humi form the northern 

 boundary of the plain. They appear to rise abruptly, 

 but they throw off southerly lower eminences, which 



