ous
in consequence. The number of fish caught by weirs, baskets, and nets
now, as the waters decline, is prodigious. The fish feel their element
becoming insufficient for comfort, and retire from one bouga to another
towards the Lake; the narrower parts are duly prepared by weirs to take
advantage of their necessities; the sun heat seems to oppress them and
force them to flee. With the south-east aerial current comes heat and
sultriness. A blanket is scarcely needed till the early hours of the
morning, and here, after the turtle doves and cocks give out their
warning calls to the watchful, the fish-eagle lifts up his remarkable
voice. It is pitched in a high falsetto key, very loud, and seems as if
he were calling to some one in the other world. Once heard, his weird
unearthly voice can never be forgotten--it sticks to one through life.

We were four hours in being ferried over the Loitikila, or Lolotikila,
in four small canoes, and then two hours south-west down its left bank
to another river, where our camp has been formed. I sent over a present
to the headman, and a man returned with the information that he was ill
at another village, but his wife would send canoes to-morrow to transport
us over and set us on our way to Muanazambamba, south-west, and over
Lolotikila again.

_14th April, 1873._--At a branch of the Lolotikila.

_15th April, 1873._--Cross Lolotikila again (where it is only fifty
yards) by canoes, and went south-west an hour. I, being very weak, had
to be carried part of the way. Am glad of resting; _ai mua_ flow
copiously last night. A woman, the wife of the chief, gave a present of
a goat and maize.

_16th April, 1873._--Went south-west two and a half hours, and crossed
the Lombatwa River of 100 yards in width, rush deep, and flowing fast in
aquatic vegetation, papyrus, &c., into the Loitikila. In all about three
hours south-west.

_17th April, 1873._--A tremendous rain after dark burst all our now
rotten tents to shreds. Went on at 6.35 A.M. for three hours, and I, who
was suffering severely all night, had to rest. We got water near the
surface by digging in yellow sand. Three hills now appear in the
distance. Our course, S.W. three and three-quarter hours to a village on
the Kazya River. A Nyassa man declared that his father had brought the
heavy rain of the 16th on us. We crossed three sponges.

_18th April, 1873._--On leaving the village on the Kazya, we forded it
and found it seventy yards