Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1869-12-03
DR.. Livingstone.

half been shrouded in the mystery Of the
mysterious continent, and who has been
mourned as dead for over year, has re-
appeared, and we may confidently hope to
he able to read the thrilling and interest
ing accounts Of his African explorations
at no very distant day. 1t was on the
2sth Of March, 1866, that DR.. Livingstone
left Zanzibar, intending TO penetrate to the
interior of the continent by way oil the
river Rovuma. From that time to the
present hardly any communication has
been had, bat on Monday, Nov. 8, letters
were received from him by the Royal Geo.
graphical Society Of London, and an audi
rnce seldom equaled In size or interest as
sembied to hear them read. We have had
the pleasure of pcrusing the contents of
those letters in the London Daily Nsms,
which cur friend Maj. E. r. Jones, U. S.
consu, ct Newcastl.-upon Tyne, kindly
sends us.
{ With DR.. Livingstone's letter before US,
II is difficult to understand where 1t leaves
him. At the southeastern corner OF that
large central area Of Africa which is called
Nigritia, and which still remains blark
in all our aliases, is place marked as Ca
scmbe's Town. 1t lies far northwest of
Lake Nyassa, and not far to the south
west of Lake Tanganyika. "This town
is situated" says DR.. Kirk, ION chain OF
lakes and rivers that flow northwards." 1t
is, the outpost Of European exploration,
and is the point at which DIR. Livingstone
had arrived in February, 1867. 1t is in
the large and magnificcntly watercd dis
trict of which this town is the key that
DR.. Livingstone seems to have continued
his explorations. He describes the coun-
try between the Loanga Valley and Lake
Tanganyika as an upland of some 800
miles square, covered with dense or open
forest, wifi rich soil, an undulating sur
face, and cool climate. East of it lies
similar district, and west Of it the chain
of the Kong Mountains, where the river
Zsmbesi, so familiar to DR.. Livingstone in
carly days, takes its rise. 1t is quite i'm
possible to follow him in his journeys to
and fro in this part of Africa. His letter,
however, confirms the impression already
conveyed by previous discoveries, that the
centre of the African continent, so far
from being the burning desert imagined
by our forcfathers, is a country delugcd
with rains in the rainy season, and dotted
over with lakes which render it well wa
tered and fruitful through the hot months.
DIR. Livingstone gives picture Of one of
these lakes, which reads like tale of the
Beautiful Islands ION the northern
slope of the upland, and on the 81 April,
1857, discovered Lake Liemba. 1t lies
dn q hollow, with precipitous sides, 1000
feet down. 1t is extremely beautiful, sides,
top and bottom being covered with trees
and other vegetation. Elephants, buffa-
does and anteiopcs feed on the steep slopes,
while hippopotami, crocodilcs and fish
swarm in the waters. 1t is as perfect a
natural paradise as ZeEophon could have
desired. On two rocky islands men till
the land, rear goats and catch fish the
villages ashore are empowered in the palm
oil palms of the West Coast of Africa"
Into this hitherto unknown lake four riv-
ers were flowing, and some brooks, like
Scottish front burns, were falling in mag
niicent cascades. One of the rivers, fifty
miles from its confluence, was one hun
dred yards broad, and thigh and waist
deep, and flowing in fast stream over the
hard sandstone bottom, though it was four
months since rain had fallen. Another
comes in with a smooth stream, bearing
duckweed and grassy islands on its sur
face, and ten fathoms in depth. The Lake
Liemba is small for Africa. 1t is eighteen
to twenty miles broad, and thirty five 10
forty long, and DR.. Livingstone thinks it
drains in some way into Lake Tanganyika.
DR.. Livingstone has been almost entangled
in lakes, rivers and mountain chains, and
his chief detentions have been caused by
floods. He gives no details, but his letter
suggests that Africa, the land of deserts,
will be known as the land of lakes.
Apart from the personal interest which
attaches to the writer, the chief interest of
Dr. Liyingstone's letter is in the specula-
tons in which he INDUCES. DR.. Living
stone reserves the detailed account OF his
observations for complete statement on his
return; this letter was only hastily written
on bit of borrowed paper, on the shore of
Bangwcolo. He adds postscript to say
that in Rua, one Of the districts of the |
wooded upland south Of Lake Tanganyika,
a large tribe lives in underground houses
Some of the excavations are said 20 be
thirty miles long, and to have rills running
through them the people write by kind
of hieroglyphics, and have their eyes slant
ing; in person they are dark and we'll
made. DR.. Livingstone had not seen these
curious people, but he half promised to go
and do so +; his short account of them
reads like some strange relic of an ancient
CIVILIZATION which has entrenched itself