A STORM ON THE LAKE. 169 atmospheric pressure, and an attempt to determine the elevation of Mahagi with a boiling-point thermometer, for the purpose of checking previous determinations, was therefore a failure. In the night this low pressure was compensated for. It had begun to blow hard in the evening, and thunder and lightning, with rain, in the south, held out no promising prospect for the night; the storm kept off, however, until midnight. The steamer rode in deep water, and was protected by the island against the force of the waves coming in from the south, so that the storm passed away over our heads. But about midnight the wind veered round to the east-north-east, and the steamer then became fully exposed to the violent buffets of the angry waves. ‘The rain came down in torrents. To make matters worse, the anchor dragged, and in a moment the steamer was aground, but fortunately in mud and sand. LHvery time the white-crested waves struck the broadside of the boat they made her heel over. In spite of all our united endeavours, we were quite unable to free her from her unpleasant position, but by casting out another anchor, and by its means hauling the ship round, we managed to turn her so far as to present her stern instead of her side to the direct force of the waves; even then she felt the shock through all her timbers.

The storm subsided about five in the morning, and the rain ceased; I at once got all hands to work, threw out another anchor, and by reversing our engine, we were able to haul the ship off the mud. About seven o'clock we got afloat, and after repairing minor damages, we started half an hour later to cross over to the east side of the lake. It was still blowing stiff, and the foam-covered waters beyond the narrow extremity of the island looked anything but assuring; and, in fact, we had scarcely passed that point when the game began ; in a very short time a large part of my people were prostrated with veritable sea-sickness, and notwithstanding that the motion of the water, and consequently of the boat, was soon greatly moderated, my suffering companions did not recover until we got under the shelter of the land. In a southerly and south-south-easterly direction, the brave Khedive steamed merrily onwards, frequently passing obliquely through large shoals of fish, which doubtless felt more comfortable