PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY 
45 
and Lake C'hilwa—are a mass of beautiful hills ranging from 3000 feet to 
nearly 7000 feet in height. The highest mountain in the Shire Highlands 
is Mount Zomba. This is a smaller mass than Mlanje but very similar to it 
in shape and arrangement. Like Mlanje it is a large plateau but its higher 
peaks are rather the up-reared edges of the plateau (like the rim of a dish) 
than independent cones that rise from the centre. The highest point of 
Zomba is computed to attain an altitude of 6900 odd feet. It may turn out 
on more careful investigation to actually reach 7000 feet. In Southern 
Angoniland, in the south-western portion of the Protectorate, Mount Dedza 
is computed at 7000 feet and other high mountains like Chongoni are not far 
off in altitude. In the mountains to the west of Lake Nyasa the higher peaks 
of the lofty Nyika plateau reach to over 8000 feet in height. The average 
altitude of the Nyika plateau is 7000 feet. One or two points on the Nyasa- 
Tanganyika plateau may touch 7000 feet and likewise in the northern part 
of the Muchinga (Lukinga) mountains west of the river Luangwa. Elsewhere 
THE MI.ANJE RANGE FROM THE TUCHILA PLAIN 
in British Central Africa, in the basin of the Kafue and Lunsefwa rivers, and 
to the west of Lake Bangweolo there is probably no greater altitude than 
6000 feet. 
Although they are not in British territory and therefore not within the 
scope of this book, a passing mention should be made of the Livingstone 
Mountains which border the north-east coast of Lake Nyasa and extend 
under various names to the south end of Lake Rukwa. They reach to 
altitudes which possibly slightly exceed that of Mlanje and come very near 
to 10,000 feet. 
This is pre-eminently a country of great lakes. Lake Tanganyika is over 400 
miles in length with a breadth varying from 60 to 30 miles. Lake Nyasa is 360 
miles long with a greatest breadth of 40 miles and a least breadth of 1 5. Lake 
Bangweolo 1 is of such uncertain area that it is useless to give any guess at the 
1 The name of Bangweolo is quite unknown to the natives, and must have been given by 
Livingstone under some misapprehension. By the surrounding peoples it is known as “ Liernba,” or 
“Mweru,” or “ Nyanja ” : more often as “Mweru.” Mr. Alfred Sharpe conjectures that the name 
“Bangweolo” may have arisen from the combination of “ Pa-mweru ” or “ Pa-mwelu ” (“ r ” and 
“1” are interchangeable in most African dialects) meaning “at Mweru.” The natives are very much 
addicted to prefixing the locative prefix “ Pa ” to names of places. In the same way Livingstone 
