364 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
Mpimbwe, we come to a narrow ridge rising about 
600 feet above tlie lake. Its shore is deeply indented, 
and the wash of waves has bared enormous masses of 
granite. 
At the south-western corner of this bay there is a 
neck of low land which all but connects Mpimbwe ridge 
with the mainland ; only half a mile’s breadth of low 
land prevents Mpimbwe being an island. Near Kipencli 
Point, which is halfway between Mpimbwe ridge and 
Karema, there is a tree in the lake which was pointed 
out to me as being not many years ago on dry land. 
There is now nine feet of water around it. 
Mpimbwe Cape offers a view similar to the rocks of 
Wezi, only of a still more gigantic size and a ruder 
grandeur. 
Their appearance betrays the effects of great waves 
which have at one time swept over them, pouring their 
waters into their recesses, cleansing by force every 
cranny and flaw of their vegetable mould, and washing 
out of them every particle of soil, until, one day, by 
some sudden convulsion of nature, the lake subsided, 
leaving, a hundred feet above its surface, these grey and 
naked masses of granite. 
Any one who has seen on a rock-bound coast the war 
of sea-wave against granite, basalt, and sandstone, will 
at once recognize the effects visible at Mpimbwe. 
There lie piled up rocks, hundreds of tons in weight, 
some of them appearing to rest in such precarious 
positions that it seems as if the finger of an infant 
would suffice to push them into the deep blue lake. 
These, however, are not scored and grooved as are those 
exposed to the eroding influences of ceaseless ocean 
waves ; they are cleanly fractured, with their external 
angles only exhibiting a rough polish or roundness 
which I take to be clear signs that at some remote time 
they were exposed to waves of great power. Besides, 
the condition of the rocks at the water-line confirms 
this theory. 
Still, it is strange that the lake should have been 
rising steadily ever since living men can remember, and 
