336 THE LAKE REGION'S OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



or descend them. The worst paths in this region are 

 those which run along the banks of the many streams 

 and rivulets, and which traverse the broken and thorny 

 ground at the base of the hills. The former are 

 "thieves' roads," choked with long succulent grass 

 springing from slushy mud ; the latter are continued 

 rises and falls, with a small but ragged and awkward 

 watercourse at every bottom. From Usagara to Western 

 Unyamwezi the roads lead through thick thorn -jungle, 

 and thin forests of trees blazed or barked along the 

 track, without hill, but interrupted during the rains by 

 swamps and bogs. They are studded with sign-posts, 

 broken pots and gourds, horns and skulls of game and 

 cattle, imitations of bows and arrows pointing towards 

 water, and heads of hole us. Sometimes a young tree 

 is bent across the path and provided with a cross-bar ; 

 here is a rush gateway like the yoke of the ancients, or 

 a platform of sleepers supported by upright trunks ; there 

 a small tree felled and replanted, is tipped with a crescent 

 of grass twisted round with bark, and capped with huge 

 snail shells, and whatever barbarous imagination may 

 suggest. Where many roads meet, those to be avoided 

 are barred with a twig or crossed by a line drawn with 

 the foot. In Western Uvinza and near Ujiji, the paths 

 are truly vile, combining all the disadvantages of bog 

 and swamp, river and rivulet, thorn-bush and jungle, 

 towering grasses, steep inclines, riddled surface, and 

 broken ground. The fords on the whole line are tempo- 

 rary as to season, but permanent in place : they are rarely 

 more than breast-deep ; and they average in dry weather 

 a cubit and a half, the fordable medium. There are 

 but two streams, the Mgeta and the Ruguvu, which are 

 bridged over by trees ; both could be forded higher up 

 the bed ; and on the whole route there is but one river, 



