Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/511

THE KAMOLONDO BASIN. 419 Lake Moero. Towards the south-east extremity of the lake the two sedgy walls converge, gradually giving to the lacustrine basin the aspect of a river. Here is the Lua- Pula emissary, a meandering stream 20 feet deep and 200 yards broad, which has a winding course, probably of 120 miles, flowing first south and south-west, then trending abruptly north-west to the Mambirima (Mombottuta) rapids. Beyond these dangerous cataracts no European traveller has yet followed the course of the Lua-Pula, which, however, is known to turn northwards to join Lake Moero, or Meru. In this section of its course, about 180 miles long, falls or rapids must be very numerous, for according to Giraud the difference of level between Lakes Bangweolo and Moero is no less than 1,500 feet. To Moero itself Living- stone assigned an altitude of 3,460 feet, which Giraud reduces to 2,820. Although of somewhat smaller size it presents a larger extent of open water than the southern basin, stretching for about 90 miles uninterruptedly from south-west to north-east, where it is separated from the southern extremity of Lake Tanganyika by an isthmus, also 90 miles broad. Towards the south where it receives the Lua-Pula influent, the shores merge in boundless marshy plains, but everywhere else its waters are clear and deep. Livingstone, who visited it at two intervals, ascertained that the difference between high and low-water level is at least 20 feet. The surface of the lake is increased hundreds, possibly thousands, of square miles during the floods, when the fish of Silurian types, such as the Clarias capensis, spread over the riverain lands, devouring the insects, reptiles, and other animals drowned by the inundations ; and when the waters begin to subside these siluroids are in their turn captured in thousands, by means of dams and fishing-baskets. The natives mentioned to Livingstone the names of thirty-nine species inhabiting the lake and the Kalongozi, its great affluent from the east. A few islands are scattered about the central parts, while towards the north the Moero assumes the aspect almost of an Alpine basin between the lofty cliffs and wooded slopes of the Rua and Koma ranges. The Kamolondo Basin. As they converge from the west and east, these two chains contract the lake to a narrow channel, forming the Lua-Yua or Lua-Laba emissarj^, called by Living- stone Webb's Ptiver. Here the clear although dark current rushes between the forest-clad hills from rapid to rapid, from gorge to gorge, till it reaches the Lanji basin, which native report represents rather as a permanently flooded depression, than as a lake in the strict sense of the word. Yet in this reservoir is formed the true Congo, for here converge both the Kamolondo, or western Lua-Laba, and the Lu-Kuga emissary from Tanganyika. The Kamolondo itself develops an extensive fluvial system, bounded south by the great divide between the Congo and Zambese, and comprising such large hi, or rivers," as the Lu-Bari, the Lu-Fula, the Lu-Laba, and the Lu-Fira. The last mentioned is obstructed by numerous