To Lake Albert Edward 
179 
after a boat journey of two days. Dewatt wished to accompany 
Weidemann thither. Czeczatka was instructed to set out on the 
difficult march by way of the western marginal mountains to 
Kasindi. Weidemann and his caravan were compelled to make 
long detours because the road to the south-east of the lake was 
closed by extensive swamps, which swarmed with hippopotami. 
All things considered, this march promised to be far from enjoy¬ 
able, as the surface of the lake had risen through frequent down¬ 
pours of rain during the last few days, and had overflowed the 
banks. No choice was left, however, and the caravan set off on 
its journey, accompanied by the somewhat ironical good wishes 
of those who remained behind. 
Next day, as our small flotilla glided along the eastern banks, 
we passed great herds of hippopotami lying lazily in the hot sun 
on the sand-banks or stretching their coarse heads out of the water, 
puffing and snorting noisily. 
As all the boats have to be propelled by means of long poles, 
we always kept in the shallow water close to the banks. The 
fishing folk venture very reluctantly into the middle of the lake, 
and with good reason, for the squalls which frequently rise churn 
up the water into large waves, which seriously imperil the fragile 
and usually leaky boats. The boats on Lake Albert Edward 
were of a very different type from those which we had previously 
met with. Isolated specimens of dug-outs are occasionally seen, 
but the majority of these craft are fashioned out of thin planks 
joined together with bast fibre. As this primitive method of 
boat-building is very inadequate, the water sometimes streams 
through the side planks in heavy jets, and has to be bailed out 
constantly during a journey. 
We landed at the small village of Katanda after a voyage of 
five hours in the glowing heat. The construction of the place 
afforded quite a new and remarkable sight to us, for resting on 
rafts, it floated in the centre of a creek of the lake abounding in 
reeds and rushes. Unfortunately the population had fled in fear 
at our approach. No human being could be seen; only a few 
hungry dogs howled dismally from the roofs of the huts. As we 
