388 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
with impetuous course to the lake. Wherever foothold 
is obtained on a square-1 trowed hill, terrace, or slope, 
cultivated fields and villages are seen, while on either 
side of them the cliffs drop sheer to profound depths. 
The topmost height of Mount Missossi is about 3000 
feet above the lake. As the lake is very wide between 
Goma and Ujiji — about forty miles — the waves rise 
very suddenly and drive in long billowy ridges against 
the massive and firm base of the mount, and when the 
south-easters prevail, the gale has command of sixty 
miles of clear water from Kabogo Cape. Navigation in 
canoes, while the wind is rising, is very dangerous. 
We left Kabogo River’s safe haven about 7 P.M., and 
at nine were pulling by Missossi Mount, exposed to a 
rising gale of great power about half a mile off a lee 
shore. To avoid being swept on the rocks, which were 
all afoam, w T e had to row direct eastward, and to 
handle both boat and canoe very delicately to avoid 
foundering. For two hours we laboured hard to get 
a mile to windward, and then, hoisting sail, we flew 
northward, just grazing the dreadful rocks of Mdanga 
Cape. 
Nature, as already seen, has been in most frantic 
moods along the western coast of the Tanganika, but in 
Goma, where she has been most wanton, she has veiled 
herself with a graceful luxuriance of vegetation. Where 
the mountains are steepest and highest, and where their 
springs have channelled deepest, there the pillared 
mvule and rneofii flourish most and attain their greatest 
height, and in loving fellowship they spread themselves 
up opposing slopes and follow the course of the stream 
in broad belts on either side down to the edge of' the 
lake. Underneath their umbrageous foliage grows a 
tropical density of bush and plant, meshed and tangled, 
and of such variety that to class or specify them would 
require the labour and lifetime of an accomplished 
botanist. 
As we look towards the lofty heights of Northern 
Goma we observe that they have a grassy pastoral 
aspect. We turn our eyes south to catch a farewell 
