170 



THE LAKE KEGIONS OF CENTRAL AFEICA. 



500 feet : they therefore are in error who declare that 

 any vessel suffices for the purpose of boiling. Finally, 

 in all but the best instruments the air is not tho- 

 roughly expelled from the tube : indeed some writers, 

 Dr. Buist, for instance, actually advise the error. 



Another ass was left at Rufuta unable to stand, and 

 anxiously eyeing its stomach, whereby the Baloch con- 

 jectured that it was dying of a poisonous grass. Having 

 to ascend on the 12th August the Goma Pass of the 

 Rufuta, or the Eastern Range, I had arranged with 

 Kidogo and the Kirangozi, or guide, that the porters 

 should proceed with their packs, and after topping the 

 hill, should return, for a consideration, to assist the asses. 

 None, however, reappearing, when the sun had risen a 

 spear's length w r e set out, hugging the hill-flanks, with 

 deep ravines yawning on the right. Presently after pass- 

 ing through a clear forest of tall scattered trees, between 

 whose trunks were visible on both sides in perspective, 

 far below, long rolling tracts of well-wooded land broken 

 by ravines and cut by water-courses, we arrived at the 

 foot of a steep hill. The ascent was a kind of ramp, 

 composed of earth-steps, clods bound by strong tena- 

 cious roots, and thickly strewn with blocks of schiste, 

 micacious grit, and a sandstone showing the presence 

 of iron. The summit of this "kloof" was ascertained 

 to rise 2,235 feet above sea-level. It led to an easy 

 descent along the flank of a hill commanding on the 

 left hand, below a precipitous foreground, a fine bird's- 

 eye view of scattered cone and wavy ridge rising and 

 falling in a long roll, and on a scale decreasing till they 

 settled into a line of hazy-blue horizon, which had all 

 the effect of a circumambient ocean. We reached 

 the remains of a kraal on the summit of a dwarf hill 

 called Mfu'uni, from the abundance of the Mfu'u tree, 



