The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

LAKE EIKWA. 807rlisplaced. The alluA-ial deposits, incessantly disturbed by the current, presentsevery year a fresh system of ramifying channels, while seawards the outlines ofthe coast are continually modified by the ceaseless action of the coral-buildingpol\-ps.In proportion to the size of its basin, the Eufiji delta is very extensive,developing a coastline about 54 miles long and covering a total superficial area ofno less than 600 square miles. It is intersected by about a dozen so-called mtos,or estuaries, some of which are not in constant communication with the fluvialsystem, although connected witli it for the greater part of the year, when thesweet and saline waters are intermingled in their channels. The largest volumesof the fluvial current are discharged through the northern branches, the Bumbaor Msala, the Kiomboni, Simba-Uranga, and Kibunya, and these are consequentlythe most accessible to shipping, which is able to ascend them at high water.The Simba-Uranga mouth especially is much frequented by coasters, whichcometo load timber on the banks of the river. All the channels in the neighbourhoodof the sea are fringed by dense mangrove thickets, and liere the few habitations ofthe natives are raised on piles sunk in the mud. Higher up, wbere the soil isless saturated witb moisture, no more trees are seen, and the ground is coveredwith tall grasses, yielding where cultivated rich crops of rice.Compared with the Ruiiji, the other streams discharging into the Zanzibarwaters are of inconsiderable size.The Kingani, which Holmwood ascended for adistance of 120 miles from its mouth, is also known as the Mto, Mbazi, or Rufu(Ru-Fu), names which have all the same meaning of " river." It has its sourcein the valleys of the eastern slope east of the Fsagara uplands. The Wami,which also reaches the coast opposite the island of Zanzibar, but a little farthernorth, collects its first waters much farther west in the hiUs skirting the plateau.Lakk Rikwa.But the space comprised between the basins of these rivers and those flowingto Tanganyika is dotted over with shallow flooded depressions without any outflow.The largest of these reservoirs, lying west of the heights where the mainbranches of the Rufigi have their origin, is Lake Rikwa (Likwa, Hikwa), whichwas discovered by Thomson in 1880, and has since been visited by Cotterill andKaiser. Seen from the summit of the Liamba Mountains enclosing it on the northwest,and separating it from Tanganyika, Rikwa appears to fill a regular valleydisposed north-east and south-west parallel with the axis of Tanganyika and Nyassa,and forming part of the same lacustrine system in the continental relief. Itstands at an estimated altitude of nearly -2,600 feet, that is to say, about 100 feetabove the level of Tanganyika, and has a probable length of about 60 miles, witha breadth varj-ing from lo to 20 miles. Rikwa receives several affluents at bothextremities, including even a considerable stream, the Katimia or Mkafu, whichtakes its rise north of Karema, in the mountains skirting the great lake. But allthese contributions of fresh water, being carried off by the evaporation of theX 2