United States or Anguilla ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Deluded yesterday by the sight of the broad waters of the Lueru lo Urigi, espied in the distance from the top of a hill, into the belief that we were in view of the N'yanza itself, we walked triumphantly along, thinking how well the Arabs at Kaze had described this to be a creek of the great lake; but on arrival in camp we heard from the village officer that we had been misinformed, and that it was a detached lake, but connected with the Victoria N'yanza by a passage in the hills and the Kitangule river.
He thus assisted me in the protractions of the map, to the countries which lie east and west of the route. Shortly after starting this morning, we were summoned by the last officer on the Urigi to take breakfast with him, as he could not allow us to pass by without paying his respects to the king's guests.
To the right, at the end of the spur, stretching as far as the eye could reach towards the N'yanza, was a rich, well-wooded, swampy plain, containing large open patches of water, which not many years since, I was assured, were navigable for miles, but now, like the Urigi lake, were gradually drying up.
Gradually descending from the spur which separates the Lohugati valley from the bed of the Lueru lo Urigi, or Lake of Urigi, the track led us first through a meadow of much pleasing beauty, and then through a passage between the "saddle-back" domes we had seen from the heights above Lohugati, where a new geological formation especially attracted my notice.
We parted with reiterated compliments on both sides; and shortly after, diving into the old bed of the Urigi, were constantly amused with the variety of game which met our view.
Rising out of the bed of the Urigi, we passed over a low spur of beef-sandwich clay sandstones, and descended into the close, rich valley of Uthenga, bound in by steep hills hanging over us more than a thousand feet high, as prettily clothed as the mountains of Scotland; whilst in the valley there were not only magnificent trees of extraordinary height, but also a surprising amount of the richest cultivation, amongst which the banana may be said to prevail.
It was one of many others which, like that of Urigi, drains the moisture of the overhanging hills, and gets drained into the Victoria N'yanza through the Kitangule river. To do royal honours to the king of this charming land, I ordered my men to put down their loads and fire a volley.
Formerly, he said, the Urigi valley was covered with water, extending up to Uhha, when all the low lands we had crossed from Usui had to be ferried, and the saddle-back hills were a mere chain of islands in the water. But the country had dried up, and the lake of Urigi became a small swamp.
Word Of The Day