As the people speak a bastard Batetele, which we could not understand, it is possible that these are not the names of the mountains at all, but only those of the chiefs of the districts. On the 31st we came to the mouths of the Lukuga, which form a delta. The northern mouth is about thirty yards wide, the southern about eighty yards. The latter has a very rapid current. The Lualaba, at the confluence with the Lukuga, is about 400 yards wide, and about half a mile higher must be nearly a mile wide. It runs in the direction north 20° west for several miles, and there is no sign whatever of Lake Lanchi, which is marked on so many maps.

The Lualaba runs from the mouth of the Lukuga southward, and is so straight that, except for a few palm-tops, sky and water touch at the horizon. As soon as we got into the Lukuga, the