443 
DISCOVERING LAKE NYASSA. 
public opinion of their own countrymen, they really pitied 
the strangers, and often guided them faithfully, when no 
one else could be hired to do so for love or money. 
On the 18th of April, they discovered Lake Shirwa, a 
considerable body of bitter water, containing leeches, 
fishes, crocodiles, and hippopotami. It is brackish, proba» 
bly from having no outlet, and appears to be deep, with 
islands in it. The northern end of Shirwa has not been 
seen, though it has been passed. Its length is from GO to 
80 miles, and its breadth 20 miles. It stands about 1 80® 
feet above the sea, and its water tastes like a weak solution 
of Epsom salts. The country round is beautiful, moun- 
tains about eight thousand feet above the sea level stand 
near the eastern shore, and on the west stands Mount 
Zomba, 7000 feet high, and some 20 miles long. Return- 
ing by a different route, they reached Tette on the 23d of 
June. 
CHAPTER XXX I Y. 
DOCTOR LIVINGSTONE DISCOVERS LAKE NYASSA. 
About the middle of August, the expedition started 
again up the Shire, with the intention of journeying on foot 
to the north of Lake Shirwa, in search of Lake Nyassa. 
The Shire drains a rich valley about twenty miles wide. 
For the first twenty miles the hills, on the left bank, are 
close to the river; then comes Morambala, ‘‘the lofty 
watch-tower,” a detached mountain, 500 yards from the 
river’s brink, with steep sides, on the west, 4000 feet high. 
Beyond Morambala, the Shire winds through an exten- 
sive marsh. Ascending the river, they passed a deep 
stream, about thirty yards wide, flowing in from a body o’ 
water several miles broad. The natives were engaged on 
it, filling their canoes with the roots of the lotus, called 
Nyika, which, roasted or boiled, resemble chestnuts, and 
