MR STANLEY'S MISSION.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2612, 23 May 1877, Page 2

MR STANLEY'S MISSION.

Solutidfe of the Problem of the

Tanganika.

(continued.)

Ujiji, Aug. 7,1876. In company with Kawe-Nyange and some of his people, we sailed up a fine open stream-like bcdy of water, ranging in width from 90 to 450 yards of open water. From bank to bank there was a

uniform width of from 4£3(0 6C3 yards,

but the sheltered bends, undisturbed by

the monsoon winds, nourished < dense

growths of papyrus. After sailing three miles before the south-east wind we halted

at the place which Kawe-JNyaage pointed out as the utmost limit of the ascent made

by Cameron, a small bend among the- papyvus plants, a few hundred yards northwest from Lumba.

As a first proof of what Kawe-Nyange had said about a Lukuga flowing into the lake, and another flowing out of the lake, he pointed out the returning waterbubbles, which " fought," he said, against; the small waves caused by the south-east wind, for which intelligent remark he received an encouraging word.

After landing at Lumba alt-wha were not required by me in the tipnberate investigation I was about to make with I the aid of my boat, I had a proper camp | pitched and quiet cove cleared, where ■"" ' boat and canoe could lie close to the bank. I then proceeded further up the Lukuga. When about 100 yards higher we arrived at the limit of open water, and an apparently impenetrable mass of papyrus grew from bank to bank.' Here we stopped for a short time, and with a portable level tried to detect a current. The level indicated none. We then pushed our way through about 20 yards of the papyrus plants, .-. until we were stopped by mud-banks, " black as pitch, enclosing slime and puddles seething with animal life. I caused four men to stand in the boat, and climbing on their shoulders with an oar , - ' for support I tried to obtain a general . view of what lay ahead and around ua. I saw the bed of the creek or river choked from bank to bank with the papyrus plants, except where they enclosed small pools of still water, while,about a mile or so higher up I saw trees which seemed to me to stand exactly in the bed. Descending from my uneasy perch, I caused two of my men to proceed in Opposite ways on the mud towards the banks..- ->-.- Perceiving after watching them a short time, that the muddy ooze was not firm enough to sustain a man's weight, I recalled them, and returned to open water again. I now began another experiment to test the existence of a current. I* took a piece of board, with which I had provided' myself beforehand, and cut out a disc a foot in diameter. Into this disc'l bored •'■' four holes, through which I rove a stomt cord and suspended to it at the distance' * of five feet an earthenwpre pot, which, filled with water and held in suspension by the board, would unmistakably mark the existence of a current. Into one'side' of the board I drove a long: upike with * . small ball of cotton tied round the head. This done I measured along a straight reach of water. 1,C30 feet* with a tape line, both ends of the track distinctly marked , by a riband of sheeting tied to the papyrus. When these preparations had ; been completed I proceeded to the southeasternmost end, and in the centrcTof the , creek dropped the disc and the attached , pot in the water, noting the time by chronometer, while we rowed away from it. The monsoon wind blew very strongly at the time. - ; - - - The distance which the disc floated between 23h. 22m. 20s. and 24h. 22m. . was 822 ft. from S.E. to N.W. • Second attempt, afternoon, wind having (' dropped, disc floated from N.W". (6 S.E. " —•that is, lakewards—ls9ft. in 19m. 30s. This closed our experiment for the first day. The second day, with fifteen of the expedition, accompanied by the chief and ten of his people, we started afoot northwestwards. Keeping as closely.as the nature of the Gushes and the watercourses would permit to the Lukuga, I observed that the trend of the water* . courses and streams was from north-west /' - to south and 8.8. Easterly. After a march of a couple of hours we came to Elwani Village, where the road from Nonyis to Uuguvwa and Luwelezi . crossed the Lukuga. At Elwani we augmented our party by two of the villagers, and then descended by a gentle slope to the Mitwansi. At the base of the slope we came to the bed occupied bj tie Kibatuiba and Lukuga. The former was a small sluggish stream with a trend south-easterly. Crossing this we came tQ the dried bed of a periodical river) whether it should be called, the Lukuga or the Kibamiba it would be difficult to say. Prostrate and withered water-cane . showed that -the flow of the water in - the season was lakewards. A few yards further on we reached a point where "~ this bed first became moist, with a dense growth of water-cane flourishing and checking all progress, except by the well-trodden path, which ran through tunnels caused by the water canes embracing above our heads. Our road lay ■now through what might be called a swamp, now over a firm path of dark brown clayey mud, then through shallow hollows, with water up to the ankles, . which sometimes deepened to the kneer. - - Finally we rrrived in the middle of the Mitwansi, and Kawe-Hyange halted to point out triumphantly the water flowing indisputably westward. The stream was up to the knees and felt cold, and on putting a thermometer into it I found it to be only 68deg. Fah., about 7deg. cooler than tl<e Lukuga*Creek. By pressing the cane down with our feet to allow a free passage for the water, the flow perceptibly •quickened. JBorne by two men, I crossed over until I stood on the other bank., and observed that this cane-chocked bed was very uneven. Sometimes the water was so deep that the ni^n sank to their hips, but the average depth was about 18 inches. Trees, now dead, were scjn in the centre of the bed, which proved the statement of the natives true, that not long ago the Mitwansi tract was dry enough to nourish tamarind groves. This last rainy season . has changed it now, for since its termina-'

tion the tract has become inundated, and a continual waterflow has been observable.

The name Lukuga clings to this bed until it passes the Kiganja ridge, when, the . channel becomes known as the Luind^ (some call it the Luimbi), which, flowing by Miketo's Land, passes through Ka- % lumbi's in Rua, and empties into the Kamalondo, a tributary of the Lualaba. This road or ford, as it rausb now be called, is daily traversed by men, women, and children, who require to cross from one bank to the other, and is about three

miles north-west &om Lumba, or sis miles from Mkampeniba, ' The Ifcsult of .four'days' experiments, investigations and inquiries proved -that as far as the south-east end of the Mitwansi tract —which may he called a marsh or aa ooze, receiving and absorbing a large quantity of water pressed against it by the daily south-east wind—-there is no current, but that, on the contrary, the surplus waters which cannot be absorbed by the already repleted ooze, on the wind subsiding, return to the lake. That for the space of two miles from the south-east end of the Mit«ansi the entire bed from bank to bank is choked by immovable mudbanks enclosing stagnant pools and stream-like expanses of water, edged round with impenetrable growths of papyrus plants. That at the third mile, where the ancient lacustrine deposit is of a firmer quality, and water-cane replaces the papyrus, there first becomes discernible an ooze, a trickle, and a flow westward, which, proceeding in that direction at the base of the Kiyanja ridge, is attracted to one proper channel and presently approaches the dignity of a river, when it becomes tnown as the Luindi. .

This Mitwansi is a tract of alluvial deposit, and is the result of the united action of the lake winds (which from the ep^af" April to the middle of Noyeraber pre^ul from the south-east) and the feeble current of the former effluent Lukuga. The current, as may be expected from the very limited area it drained, was met daily during nearly seven months of the year hy the waves of the lake, which encroached yearly nearer and nearer to its source, and the detrital matter which would have been borne into the lake by a stream of greater force was deposited amid the papyrus. This plant flourishes in still and sweet-water lagoons or in quiet bends of rivers, and once it has thoroughly obtained root it becomes almost as immovable as a forest. As the waters of the lake advanced with its -annual rise they destroyed with each year some small portion- of the force of the Lukuga-cur-rent; and the water plants and other organic debris floating ■ down tire stream no sooner felt the influence of the lake wind than they, were heaped up amid these papyri ; other matter borne direct from the fake, such as'floating canewood, and earthy washings from the banks and the bar, were pressed against them, sometimes thrown amongst them. Soil, sand, decomposing, vegetation, sunk on the surface, bore it down with their weight, and thus the process of entombing the earlier debris created finally a tract of clayey mud and opze, out of which a luxuriant growth of papyrus shot its brush-like heads as dense as a field of corn.

While the Lukuga was a river it will be seen that there was a constant precipitation of detrital matter, and as steady an accumulation of it in one locality, Until the river became annihilated, and only its bed, now filled the creek, and the small tributary streams mark its former course.

Since the the Tanganika has risen to the level of the Mitwansi—whether this year, last year, or two years aa;o, matters hot much which—ra change must be looked for, and with the advance of time it will be more decided and remarkable. The mud;and ooze with all the papyrus of the Mitwansi furnishes too feeble an obstacle to resist the increasing volume received each year by the Tanganika, while there is a steep slope at the western side of it ready to pour away the surplus water. The consequence will be that five years hence, perhaps a little later, an effluent will be formed of great magnitude and real force, for the fiat 'of Nature has gone forth to Tanganika, " Thus high shalt thou rise, and no higher."

In these results, patiently and impartially, attained, I see no. opposition to Lieutenant Cameron's claiming the full honour; of bis discovery, but rather a simple reconciliation of apparently opposing statements. The whole was a perplexing riddle to me, which the more I thought of the more complicated it grew/ and only a personal examination of the scene would ever have enabled me to understand the matter.

In the .absence of a scientific geologist I must take upon myself to suggest a few thoughts to those of your readers who may become interested in this subject of the Lukuga, and are better able than myself to deal with it. I cannot satisfactorily account for the existence of this. interesting phenomenon otherwise than by supposing the formation of the extraordinarily deep .depression, in the bosom of the broad plateau filled by the waters of the Tanganika to be post-diluvian. If the idea of one accustomed to read geological history, and to speculate on past ages from existing traces in the hard rock or mountain contour, may be permitted to see the light, I would say that subsequent to ihe retreat of the ocean to its present bed, the Malagarazi and the Luwegeri rivers have flowed over this present enormous'gulf, and channelled their way for their exit westward, first severing the Kiyanja from the Kilunga ridge. This great depression was in these days an apparently firm plateau with the same rolling surface as TTnyamwezi and TJhha now present.; and the two rivers, joined by others of less magnitude, flowed on undisturbedly to the Lualaba for centuries, perhaps ages. For in what other manner (Jbuldj^bis deept break in what must evidently have been long ago one firm, unbroken, compact ridge, have become so smoothly worn down,-a thousand feet and more, so low as to permit tho gently flowing Luindi to sweep by its base from the East. It required a mightier volume of ■water than the Luindi, with no other source of supply than the ooze of the Mitwansi, three miles east of Kiyanja, and until the present year such supply must have been scanty in the extreme. If it be granted that such was, or might have been, the condition of this region at that time, the subsequent changes which took place are easy enough to arrive at, We may imagine volcanic agency, then, as heaving up this plateau, rending the solid earth, and heaping along the edges of the deep chasm it created long Hues of mountain ranges, so changing its former smooth. rolling surface into its present yugged and uneven aspect. The great stream which formerly drained all this section and rolled between the Kihinga and Eiyanja ridges, having its ancient bed disrupted, fell abruptly into the immense gulf in several and separate courses, till a stream of short length and little volume is created, flowing from the eastern slopes pf the above-named ridges south-east- ' ward, to be in due time known as the Lv« kuga; since which tremendous wrack of nature half of the waters with inverted courses have assisted the other half to fill up the chasm, appearing to be now on the eve of fulfilling their task.

The visible effects of this great geologipal change are not the same at the

southern end as they are further north and about the centre. At (he southern end the plateau, with its folds upon folds and layers upon lay<*;s of (inn rock, drops abruptly dow:i i. 'h - bluo giv-u depths of the lake, and «' -ya^ i.s coasti?ig along those shores sipp ar fc • L>.> gazing at the zenith, as they ) <<k v.p at. the IVw shrubs and trees growing upon the edge of the tawny plateau, lint at the cenne, especially about Tongive on the east wde and Tembive on the west sirlo, wo appear i to be in the vicinity of the origin rf this ! convulsion, and the section whence the j earth first began to feel her throes, jAt Ton give we see an aggregation lof aspiring peaks and semi - circular ■ cones, which would, perhaps, with more jiexact knowledge, be called closed vomitories or craters. South of Tembive we see a rirlge inclining to the north-east, lofty and irregular, with much of the same structure as the rocks of Tougive exhibit. North of Tembive, on the same side, is to be observed a considerable depression in the land. From a height of 4COO feet above the surface of the lake, the soil has suddenly subsided into a low, rolling surface, the highest point of which 13 scarcely 1,500 feet above the water, with isolated domes and cones. The rock also changes in character from the basalt and trap to a decomposed felspathic kind, followed by a conglomerate and a calcareous tufa, strongly impregnated with iron, which is the character of the banks on each side of the Lukuga. 1 his depressed country continues as far as Goma, where we see the land up-heaved highest, but with slopes less abrupt and rugged than at the south end, and clothed with a tropical luxuriance of vegetation, mammoth trees, and numberless varieties of shrubs and plants. The high altitude which marks the verge of the Goma tract compared to that of the plateau lying immediately west of it inclines one to think that the volcanic explosion tilted the whole of this north-western coast, merely raising higher and loosening the edges of the chasm, which has since by action of weather and water become worn and decomposed, presenting for a breadth of from four to five miles all those various effects in mountain ; scenery which most approach the sublime in character. Once out of view of the chasm filled by the Tanganika, the plateau is seen clearly in its original form, and has a gradual westward slope. Between North Goma and the high mountains of Uvira there is another remarkable depression in the land, similar to that of Uguhha. It appears as if there bad been a sudden subsidence of this part, and a flow of the subterranean rock N.N.E., which afterwards was ejected bodily upward, and now forms the peninsula of Übwari, over thirty miles in length. Burton and Speke, on their voyage from Ujiji to Uvira, sketched Übwari as an island, probably from the fact that the Wajiji carelessly called it " SLirira," o"island." Livingstone and. myself in 1871, also he.ird of what our predecessors had called Übwari Island as the island of Muzimu. Here is an instance of four travellers mistaken about one small section of Lake Tanganika. The truth, is we were all wrong.

My recent exploration has proved that the countries of Karamba and Übwari form a long, narrow peninsula, joined firmly enough to the main land by an isthmus seven miles in width, with an altitude in its centre of about 200 feet above the lake. So it will be seen that, before any of our former statements caa become correct, the Tanganika must have a further rise of 200 feet, which the "waste-pipe " of the Lukuga will presently render impossible.

The fact that this is not an island, but a peninsula, makes a deep gulf penetrate £.S.:.W. between Masansi and Übwari. I have taken the liberty of calling this great arm of the lake " Burton Gulf," in honour of the discoverer of the Tanganika, as Speke Gulf distinguishes a- somewhat similar formation in the south-east section of the YictoriaNvanza.

From the summit of one of the Übwari hills I gaaed westward; the first white man who has ever enjoyed this privilege, for there is always some trouble in Übwari. It being a clear day, by means of a field-glass I obtained an extensive view—r-at some distance, it is true—of the impenetrably savage countries west of Burton Gulf. The land lies in lengthy mountain wavpg, with . deep ■ valleys between, for 2€-andßo miles, when, finally, the great table-land of this part of Central Africa again presents itself, and is seen to join at a cloudy distance, after a deep curve south-west, the.plateau of Goma. These valleys between the mountain waves give rise to many small rivers, all of which have their exit into the lake on the west side of Burton Gulf.

Such are some of the most remarkable effects of that grand convulsion which disparted the table-land of Central Africa, and formed this enormous chasm of the Tanganika in its bosom. Nor has this convulsion occurred so very remotely ..but that it might, in my humble opinion, be measured in lapse of years by competent scientific men. It appears, also, that the agencies which produced this extraordinary change are not quite dead in this part of Central Africa, for about 18 months ago, I hear, a mountain in Urundi was precipitated from its position and toppled over, burying several villages, with all their inhabitants. This disaster occurnear Mukungu, in Urundi.

About three years ago the surface of the Tanganika Lake, in the neighbourhood of Ujiji, was observed to be blackened with large lumps and masses of some strange dark substance, which,, as they were swept upon the shore of Ujiji, were picked up, examined, and wondered at. The Wajiji called it, and still continue firmly in their belief, the " discharge of lightning." The Arabs called it pitch, and collected large quantities of it. Requiring some substance to caulk my boat before setting out on the voyage of exploration, I was presented with some of this " discharge of lightning," or pitch, and found it was asphaltum, which most I probably escaped through some vent in the bed of the Tanganika, since on no part of the shores could I obtain, after diligent inquiry, the slightest information of its source.

Henry M. Stanley.