XIV 
RETURN TO LAKE RUDOLPH 
339 
living here. The prevailing wind on the lake, as before noticed, 
was from the south-east ; but whenever it changed to the north, 
as it occasionally did for a day, bringing squally weather and 
the thunderstorms already alluded to, the lake became dotted for 
miles with floating islands of various sizes, some of them with 
tall grass or rushes growing on them. These are evidently 
masses of water-weed, detached by the strong northerly breeze 
from great beds of floating vegetation formed about the mouth 
of the river. They present a most curious and picturesque 
spectacle drifting southward over the broad expanse of water ; 
but, on the return of the prevailing southerly winds, they all 
get backed up again at the northern extremity and leave the 
water open once more. 
One of the natives who had accompanied me on my ill- 
fated hunt of iith January was an Mkwavi, though living 
among the El Gume people at Bumi. He was rather a nice 
fellow, and often came to see me and professed great friendship. 
He said that his father had been a friend of Count Teleki’s, 
when that great traveller was here on his memorable journey 
during which he discovered and named this lake, and he con¬ 
sidered it a duty he inherited to be “ the dog of the white man,” 
as he expressed it. Lekwari (such was his name) confirmed, 
by his own evidence, what I had already gathered from the 
testimony of the dead trees and bushes standing, more or less 
submerged, in the lake, some of which are visible at a great 
distance from the shore. He said that at the time Teleki was 
here a great part of this corner of the lake was dry, and that 
what was cultivated land in those days is now under water, 
thus restricting the area of moist ground suitable for growing 
crops. This accounts for the difference between the present 
configuration of this end of the lake and Von Hohnel’s map of 
the part. During our chats he used to tantalise me with tales 
of fabulous elephants with tusks to which those I had shot near 
here on my way up were as nothing! He compared their 
thickness to the girth of his chest, and pointed to the central 
