s is indicated by
the colour of the water, which, on a belt along the shore, varying from a
quarter to half a mile in breadth, is light green, and this is met by the
deep blue or indigo tint of the Indian Ocean, which is the colour of the
great body of Nyassa. We found the Upper Shire from nine to fifteen feet
in depth; but skirting the western side of the lake about a mile from the
shore the water deepened from nine to fifteen fathoms; then, as we
rounded the grand mountainous promontory, which we named Cape Maclear,
after our excellent friend the Astronomer Royal at the Cape of Good Hope,
we could get no bottom with our lead-line of thirty-five fathoms. We
pulled along the western shore, which was a succession of bays, and found
that where the bottom was sandy near the beach, and to a mile out, the
depth varied from six to fourteen fathoms. In a rocky bay about latitude
11 degrees 40 minutes we had soundings at 100 fathoms, though outside the
same bay we found none with a fishing-line of 116 fathoms; but this cast
was unsatisfactory, as the line broke in coming up. According to our
present knowledge, a ship could anchor only near the shore.

Looking back to the southern end of Lake Nyassa, the arm from which the
Shire flows was found to be about thirty miles long and from ten to
twelve broad. Rounding Cape Maclear, and looking to the south-west, we
have another arm, which stretches some eighteen miles southward, and is
from six to twelve miles in breadth. These arms give the southern end a
forked appearance, and with the help of a little imagination it may be
likened to the "boot-shape" of Italy. The narrowest part is about the
ankle, eighteen or twenty miles. From this it widens to the north, and
in the upper third or fourth it is fifty or sixty miles broad. The
length is over 200 miles. The direction in which it lies is as near as
possible due north and south. Nothing of the great bend to the west,
shown in all the previous maps, could be detected by either compass or
chronometer, and the watch we used was an excellent one. The season of
the year was very unfavourable. The "smokes" filled the air with an
impenetrable haze, and the equinoctial gales made it impossible for us to
cross to the eastern side. When we caught a glimpse of the sun rising
from behind the mountains to the east, we made sketches and bearings of
them at different latitudes, which enabled us to secure approximate
measurements of the