INSTRUMENTS. 



189 



ground at the foot of the northern walls which limit 

 the grassy ^river basin: through this the Mukondokwa 

 flows in a dark turbid stream now narrowed to about 

 forty feet. The district of "Kadetamare" was formerly 

 a provisioning station where even cattle were purchase- 

 able, a rare exception to the rule in the smaller settle- 

 ments of Usagara. I at once sent men to collect rations, 

 none, however, were procurable : meeting a small party 

 that were bringing grain from Rumuma, they learned 

 that there was a famine in the land. 



At Kadetamare the only pedometer, a patent watch- 

 shaped instrument, broke down, probably from the 

 effects of the climate. Whilst carried by my companion 

 it gave a steady exaggerative rate, but being set to the 

 usual military pace of 30 inches, when transferred to 

 the person of "Seedy Bombay" and others, it became 

 worse than useless, sometimes showing 25 for 13 miles. 

 I would suggest to future explorers in these regions, as 

 the best and the most lasting means of measuring 

 distances, two of the small wheelbarrow perambulators — 

 it is vain to put trust in a single instrument — which can 

 each be rolled on by one man. And when these are spoilt 

 or stolen, timing with the watch, and a correct estimate 

 of the walking rate combined with compass-bearings, the 

 mean of the oscillations being taken when on the march, 

 would give a "dead-reckoning," which checked by lati- 

 tudes, as often as the cloudy skies permit, and by a 

 few longitudes at crucial stations, would afford mate- 

 rials for a map approximating as nearly to correctness 

 as could be desired in a country where a "handful of 

 miles" little matters. The other instruments, though 

 carefully protected from the air, fared not better than 

 the pedometer : with three pocket-chronometers and a 

 valuable lever-watch, we were at last reduced to find 



