410 



THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



the southern base of Urundi, and, deflected westwards, it 

 disembogues itself into the Tanganyika. Its mouth is 

 in the land of Ukaranga, and the long promontory behind 

 which it discharges its waters, is distinctly visible from 

 Kawele, the head-quarters of caravans in Ujiji. The 

 Malagarazi is not navigable ; as in primary and transi- 

 tion countries generally, the bed is broken by rapids. 

 Beyond the ferry, the slope becomes more pronounced, 

 branch and channel-islets of sand and verdure divide the 

 stream, and as every village near the banks appears to 

 possess one or more canoes, it is probably unfordable. 

 The main obstacle to crossing it on foot, over the 

 broken and shallower parts near the rock-bars, would 

 be the number and the daring of the crocodiles. 



The Lord of the Ferry delayed us at Ugaga by 

 removing the canoes till he had extracted fourteen 

 cloths and one coil-bracelet, — half his original demand. 

 Moreover, for each trip the ferryman received from one 

 to five khete of beads, according to the bulk, weight, 

 and value of the freight. He was as exorbitant when 

 we returned ; then he would not be satisfied with 

 less than seven cloths, a large jar of palm oil, and at 

 least three hundred khete. On the 4th February we 

 crossed to Mpete, the district on the right or off bank of 

 the stream. After riding over the river plain, which at 



west as well as to the east, I saw no possibility of explaining how the great 

 rivers could escape from the central plateau-lands and enter the ocean 

 except through deep lateral gorges, formed at some ancient period of eleva- 

 tion, when the lateral chains were subjected to transverse fractures. Know- 

 ing that the Niger and the Zaire, or Congo, escaped by such gorges on the 

 west, I was confident that the same phenomenon must occur upon the eastern 

 coast, when properly examined. This hypothesis, as sketched out in my 

 'Presidential Address' of 1852, was afterwards received by Dr. Living- 

 stone just as he was exploring the transverse gorges by which the Zambesi 

 escapes to the east, and the great traveller has publicly expressed the sur- 

 prise he then felt that his discovery should have been thus previously sug- 

 gested." 



