Page:The journal of the Royal Geographic Society of London. Volume 34, 1864. (IA s572id13663720).pdf/202

2 who then accompanied me, was a trained astronomical observer, and in that respect superior to Mr. Thornton and myself.

On the 3rd of October, 1862, Dr. Kärsten and I, in company with two other Europeans, set out from Mombas. The caravan consisted of 110 men, which number was afterwards increased by a party of 32 elephant-hunters, whom I met with in the interior, and took into my service. I had in addition a large train of asses for transport of the sick, and four dogs for sporting purposes.

I proceeded first along the coast as far as the little port of Wanga, in 4° 45' south latitude, and 39° 20' east longitude. I knew my way thence as far as Lake Jipé, this being part of my former route; and I adopted it both because I wished to be independent of a guide, and because there was water to be had along it almost every day, despite the advanced season. On the sixth day out from Wanga, I reached Baramu in the northern part of Usambara, having for five days together continued to ascend along the banks of the river Umba. Here we halted for two days, and, after another five days’ journey, reached the extreme south point of Lake Jipé in 3° 42' 52" south, leaving the Paré Range to the southward, and taking a path over a saddle-like depression in the Kisungu hills. Baramu is about 1475 English feet above the level of the sea; the foot of the Paré range about 1900 feet, and Lake Jipé from 1969 to 2101 English feet. On travelling inland the ascent is very abrupt to a plateau or table-land, which afterwards rises very gradually. The soil is tolerably uniform, with thinly-wooded land alternating with several steppe-like plains. The prevailing trees are the mimosa, the acacia, the African oak, ebony, baobab, tamarind, and a species of plane-tree. The herbage is thin, and euphorbim and cacti are in great abundance. The mineral specimens which I collected here consisted of micaceous slate (which formation extends as far as Baramu), and the same rock with injected lumps of garnet, and with irregular roughened corners, and occasional felspar, which occurred at Paré,—the nodules of garnet in these latter were often two inches in diameter. Between Paré and Lake Jipé the formation is lime