CRYSTAL WATER. 
123 
moon, fifteen days afterwards, when his year would 
have expired. He begged for a piece of paper to 
assist him, and on getting half a sheet of foolscap, 
said he would prefer paper written over ! From the 
26th of September, and during October, we had very 
pleasant showers and slight thunderstorms. At new 
moon, on the 2d November, as the doctor predicted, 
we had a heavy wind-storm, with pelting rain ; but by 
the 5th, our magical horn, the rain-gauge, had worked 
its charm and stopped the rain ! When in low ground, 
or where water was lying near the surface, the mornings 
were so cold that gloves would have been a comfort. 
During the day the sun was oppressive, but in the 
shade, with a N.E. wind generally blowing, it was 
agreeably cool. Water was everywhere abundant the 
first half of the journey, in wells dug outside the vil- 
lages, and in the boggy dips which drained the country 
to the north in the latter half. For the first time in 
Africa, we got clear crystal water bursting from under 
the hard stratified rock of the parallel ranges of Usui ; 
and whether it was that the water was purer, that the 
season had changed, or that we were in a finer climate, 
the men suffered less in health during the months of 
October and November than during any previous time 
of the year. Speke was rapidly recovering from his 
dangerous chest complaint ; and instead of my fever 
visits, I had only periodical nausea in the morning, 
occurring about every ten days during the march. 
Geologically, the country of Uzinza has a great deal 
of interest, being broken up into so many varied forms. 
One day, from the path of splintered rock, you may 
contemplate the face of a long, bare, sloping hill, the 
surface of which is half rock half bog, giving it the 
