Returning Home To The Tents As The Evening Sky Was Illumined With
The Red Glare Of The Sun, My Attention
Was attracted by observing
in the distance some bold sky-scraping cones situated in the
country Ruanda, which at once
Brought back to recollection the
ill-defined story I had heard from the Arabs of a wonderful hill
always covered with clouds, on which snow or hail was constantly
falling. This was a valuable discovery, for I found these hills
to be the great turn-point of the Central African watershed.
Without loss of time I set to work, and, gathering all the
travellers I could in the country, protracted, from their
descriptions, all the distance topographical features set down in
the map, as far north as 3§ of north latitude, as far east as
36§, and as far west as 26§ of east longitude; only afterwards
slightly corrected, as I was better able to connect and clear up
some trifling but doubtful points.
Indeed, I was not only surprised at the amount of information
about distant places I was enabled to get here from these men,
but also at the correctness of their vast and varied knowledge,
as I afterwards tested it by observation and the statements of
others. I rely so far on the geographical information I thus
received, that I would advise no one to doubt the accuracy of
these protractions until he has been on the spot to test them by
actual inspection. About the size only of the minor lakes do I
feel doubtful, more especially the Little Luta Nzige, which on
the former journey I heard was a salt lake, because salt was
found on its shores and in one of its islands.
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