18 
BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 
or she would be rolled over; then again if the steamer went northwards with 
a following sea she would be speedily swamped ; her only course—and it 
happens on this occasion to fit in with preconcerted arrangements—is to steam 
southwards, facing both wind and waves. At times the vessel seems to be 
standing on end as she crests some huge ridge of water; and as she descends 
into the furrow this broad-backed roller comes up under her stern and floods 
the upper deck. Then again she mounts, to fall again and mount again and 
fall again, until the best sailor in the world would be dizzy with this hateful 
see-saw motion. In fact, if it were not quite so dangerous, an ordinary 
passenger would give way to seasickness ; yet on this occasion you are too 
frightened that the ship may be swamped and founder to bestow much attention 
on the qualms of your stomach. 
But the captain is hopeful, and tells you that as this is the third day the 
wind has been blowing it will probably cease towards the evening. Overhead, 
in spite of the whistling wind, the sky is clear of clouds and a pale blue. The 
lake is dark indigo, flecked with white foam—not the rich, creamy, thick, white 
froth of saltwater, but a transparent clear foam like innumerable glass drops 
reflecting the sunlight coldly from many facets. 
The lake is perhaps forty miles broad. North and south there is a clear sea 
horizon. East and west there are pale greyish-blue outlines of mountain 
ranges ; but owing to the driving wind and the slight diffusion of spray at 
lower levels, or some such atmospheric cause, the lower slopes of the mountains 
are invisible and the distant land has no direct connection with the sharp-cut 
line of the indigo, foam-flecked water. 
But with the afternoon heat the wind gradually lessens in force—lessens 
"to a positive calm an hour before sunset; and the waters of the lake so easily 
aroused are as quickly and as easily appeased. As the wind diminishes in 
force the waves grow less and less till they are but a gentle swell or a mere 
ripple. At last, half an hour before sunset, you have the following scene before 
you. The steamer is now travelling smoothly and on an even keel along the 
south-east coast of Nyasa. The eastern sky is a yellowish white, which near 
the horizon becomes a very pale russet pink. The distant range of mountains 
facing the rays of the almost setting sun has its hollows and recesses and 
ravines marked in faint shadows of pinkish-purple, while the parts bathed in 
sunlight are yellowish grey. On the left-hand side of the picture the land 
projects somewhat into the lake in a long spit surmounted with low wooded 
hills, where the ground is reddish-brown dotted with white rocks, and the trees 
are a warm russet green in their lights and mauve-blue in their shadows. In 
the middle of the view, breaking the long line of the water horizon under the 
distant mountains are three warm-tinted blots of brown-pink, that represent 
three islets. 
The water of the lake, however, gives the greatest feast of colour. Its 
ground tint near the horizon is a lemon white, which changes insensibly 
to silver-blue close up to the ship’s side. But this immobile sheet of lemon- 
white, melting into palest azure, is scratched here and smeared there (like plush 
which has had the nap brushed the wrong way) with streaks and patches of 
palest amber. The whole effect is that of a great mirror of tarnished silver. 
The amber-white of these disconnected areas of ripples, where the expiring 
breeze faintly ruffles the perfect calm of the reflected sky, resembles the pinkish 
brown stains on a silver surface just becoming discoloured from exposure to 
the light. 
