MAHAGI VILLAGE. 159 the south-west of Fatiko; it is much smaller than the others. I have also heard of other very hot springs which are to be found in a district called Turkan, twelve days’ march to the east and south-east of Fatiko. It is from Turkan that camels have been brought here, which still thrive. The well is said to consist of a deep circular basin in the rocks.

Steaming on towards the south, past a narrow tract of level land, the mountains became higher and higher, and behind them another parallel chain was seen at intervals. Several large villages and extensive fields of durrah were noticed upon the heights. The highest mountain has two peaks; it is probably 3000 feet above the level of the lake. After we had steamed for some time along a widening tract of low land, we landed, at 1.24 P.M., at Mason’s Mahagi. The time occupied. in steaming from our station to this point was four and a half hours, but twenty minutes must be deducted, as this time was occupied in circumnavigating the shallows. We anchored | in ten feet of water in a kind of bay. ‘The depth of the water throughout our journey varied from twenty to fifty feet. It appears as if the western part of the lake is shallowing considerably, if indeed the whole lake is not gradually becoming smaller. The little bay is surrounded by a broad strip of land covered with gravel; no shells are to be found here, and at station Mahagi they are very rare, whereas on the eastern side of the lake the shore is perfectly covered with univalves, and more rarely with bivalves, in many places, such as Ronga and Kibiro. In their place, however, we find crocodile eggshells in great numbers, crocodiles being very numerous in the lake. High hills covered by grass form the commencement of the mountains, which present imposing outlines towards the south. There are extensive banana groves between the hills, and solitary sycamores having large edible fruits. On one of the trees I had the good fortune to shoot a specimen of the rare T'reron nudirosiris. I noticed here a stately tree which had large sweet fruits containing a long seed exactly like the fruit of the dog-rose ;* the fruit is eaten by birds and insects. The watercourses are fringed by great thickets of reeds, and here and there fields of sesame and durrah show that the * Probably a species of Mimusops.—G. S.