354 
ARRIVAL AT MAG UN GO. 
[chap. xii. 
we were informed was the embouchure of the Somerset 
river from the Victoria N’yanza. The same river that 
we had crossed at Karuma, boiling and tearing along its 
rocky course, now entered the Albert Nyanza as dead 
water! I could not understand this ; there was not 
the slightest current; the channel was about half a 
mile wide, and I could hardly convince myself that 
this was not an arm of the lake branching to the east. 
After searching for some time for a landing place among 
the wonderful banks of reeds, we discovered a passage 
that had evidently been used as an approach by canoes, 
but so narrow that our large canoe could with difficulty 
be dragged Through—all the men walking through the 
mud and reeds, and towing with their utmost strength. 
Several hundred paces of this tedious work brought us 
through the rushes into open water about eight feet 
deep, opposite to a clean rocky shore. We had heard 
voices for some time while obscured on the other side 
of the rushes, and we now found a number of natives, 
who had arrived to meet us with the chief of Magungo 
and our guide Rabonga, whom we had sent in advance 
with the riding oxen from Vacovia. The water was 
extremely shallow near the shore, and the natives 
rushed in and dragged the canoes by sheer force over 
the mud to the land. We had been so entirely hidden 
while on the lake on the other side of the reed bank 
that we had been unable to see the eastern, or Magungo 
shore; we now found ourselves in a delightful spot 
beneath the shade of several enormous trees on firm 
sandy and rocky ground, while the country rose in a 
rapid incline to the town of Magungo about a mile 
distant on an elevated ridge. 
My first question was concerning the riding oxen. 
They were reported in good order. We were invited 
to wait under a tree until the presents from the head¬ 
man should be delivered. Accordingly, while my wife 
sat under the shade, I went to the waterside to examine 
the fishing arrangements of the natives, that were on 
an extensive scale. For many hundred feet, the edges 
