How I Found Livingstone Travels, Adventures And Discoveries In Central Africa Including Four Months Residence With Dr. Livingstone By Sir Henry M. Stanley
- Page 138 of 595 - First - Home
At The Rocky Foot Of A Low, Humpy Hill On The Northern
Side, About Fifteen Feet Above The Present Surface
Of the water I
detected in most distinct and definite lines the agency of waves.
From its base could be
Traced clear to the edge of the dank morass
tiny lines of comminuted shell as plainly marked as the small
particles which lie in rows on a beech after a receding tide.
There is no doubt that the wave-marks on the sandstone might have
been traced much higher by one skilled in geology; it was only
its elementary character that was visible to me. Nor do I
entertain the least doubt, after a two days' exploration of the
neighbourhood, especially of the low plain at the western end,
that this Lake of Ugombo is but the tail of what was once a large
body of water equal in extent to the Tanganika; and, after
ascending half way up Ugombo Peak, this opinion was confirmed when
I saw the long-depressed line of plain at its base stretching
towards the Mpwapwa Mountains thirty miles off, and thence round
to Marenga Mkali, and covering all that extensive surface of forty
miles in breadth, and an unknown length. A depth of twelve feet
more, I thought, as I gazed upon it, would give the lake a length
of thirty miles, and a breadth of ten. A depth of thirty
feet would increase its length over a hundred miles, and give it a
breadth of fifty, for such was the level nature of the plain that
stretched west of Ugombo, and north of Marenga Mkali.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 138 of 595
Words from 37619 to 37890
of 163520