Chap. XXIV. 
LAKE DILOLO. 
479 
I often observed, while on a portion of the partition, that the 
air by night was generally quite still, but as soon as the sun’s 
rays began to shoot across the upper strata of the atmosphere 
in the early morning, a copious discharge came suddenly down 
from the accumulated clouds. It always reminded me of the 
experiment of putting a rod into a saturated solution of a certain 
salt, causing instant crystallization. This, too, was the period 
when I often observed the greatest amount of cold. 
After crossing the Nortliern Lotembwa, we met a party of the 
people of Kangenke, who had treated us kindly on om: way to the 
north, and sent 1dm a robe of striped calico, with an explanation 
of the reason for not returning through his village. We then 
went on to the Lake Dilolo. It is a fine sheet of water, six or 
eight miles long, and one or two broad, and somewhat of a trian¬ 
gular shape. A brancli proceeds from one of the angles, and 
flows into the Southern Lotembwa. Though labouring under fever, 
the sight of the blue waters, and the waves lashing the shore, had 
a most sootliing influence on the mind, after so much of lifeless, 
flat, and gloomy forest. The heart yearned for the vivid im¬ 
pressions, winch are always created by the sight of the broad 
expanse of the grand old ocean. That has life in it; but the flat 
uniformities over winch we had roamed, made me feel as if buried 
alive. We found Moene Dilolo (Lord of the Lake) a fat joUy 
fellow, who lamented tliat when they had no strangers they had 
plenty of beer, and always none when they came. He gave us a 
handsome present of meal and putrid buffalo’s flesh. Meat cannot 
be too far gone for them, as it is used only in small quantities as 
a sauce to their tasteless manioc. They were at this time hunting 
antelopes, in order to send the skins as a tribute to Matiamvo. 
G-reat quantities of fish are caught in the lake; and numbers of 
young water-fowl are now found in the nests among the reeds. 
Om’ progress had always been slow, and I found that our rate 
of traveUing could only be five hours a-day for five successive days. 
On the sixth, both men and oxen showed symptoms of knocking 
up. We never exceeded two and a half, or three miles an hour in a 
straight fine, though all were anxious to get home. The difference 
in the rate of travelling between ourselves and the slave-traders, 
was our having a rather quicker step, a longer day’s journey, and 
twenty travelling days a-month mstead of their ten. When one of 
