Level Plains - Vultures and other Birds - Diversity of Color in Flowers
of the same Species - The Sundew - Twenty-seventh
Attack of Fever -
A River which flows in opposite Directions - Lake Dilolo the Watershed
between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans - Position of Rocks -
Sir Roderick Murchison's Explanation - Characteristics of the Rainy Season
in connection with the Floods of the Zambesi and the Nile -
Probable Reason of Difference in Amount of Rain South and North
of the Equator - Arab Reports of Region east of Londa -
Probable Watershed of the Zambesi and the Nile - Lake Dilolo -
Reach Katema's Town: his renewed Hospitality; desire to appear
like a White Man; ludicrous Departure - Jackdaws -
Ford southern Branch of Lake Dilolo - Small Fish - Project for
a Makololo Village near the Confluence of the Leeba and the Leeambye -
Hearty Welcome from Shinte - Kolimbota's Wound -
Plant-seeds and Fruit-trees brought from Angola -
Masiko and Limboa's Quarrel - Nyamoana now a Widow -
Purchase Canoes and descend the Leeba - Herds of wild Animals on its Banks
- Unsuccessful Buffalo-hunt - Frogs - Sinbad and the Tsetse -
Dispatch a Message to Manenko - Arrival of her Husband Sambanza -
The Ceremony called Kasendi - Unexpected Fee for performing
a surgical Operation - Social Condition of the Tribes -
Desertion of Mboenga - Stratagem of Mambowe Hunters - Water-turtles -
Charged by a Buffalo - Reception from the People of Libonta -
Explain the Causes of our long Delay - Pitsane's Speech -
Thanksgiving Services - Appearance of my "Braves" -
Wonderful Kindness of the People.
After leaving the Kasai, we entered upon the extensive level plains
which we had formerly found in a flooded condition. The water on them
was not yet dried up, as it still remained in certain hollow spots.
Vultures were seen floating in the air, showing that carrion was to be found;
and, indeed, we saw several of the large game, but so exceedingly wild
as to be unapproachable. Numbers of caterpillars mounted the stalks of grass,
and many dragonflies and butterflies appeared, though this was winter.
The caprimulgus or goat-sucker, swifts, and different kinds of swallows,
with a fiery-red bee-eater in flocks, showed that the lowest temperature here
does not destroy the insects on which they feed. Jet-black larks,
with yellow shoulders, enliven the mornings with their songs,
but they do not continue so long on the wing as ours, nor soar so high.
We saw many of the pretty white ardea, and other water-birds,
flying over the spots not yet dried up; and occasionally wild ducks,
but these only in numbers sufficient to remind us that we were approaching
the Zambesi, where every water-fowl has a home.
While passing across these interminable-looking plains,
the eye rests with pleasure on a small flower, which exists in such numbers
as to give its own hue to the ground. One broad band of yellow
stretches across our path. On looking at the flowers which formed
this golden carpet, we saw every variety of that color, from the palest lemon
to the richest orange. Crossing a hundred yards of this,
we came upon another broad band of the same flower, but blue,
and this color is varied from the lightest tint to dark blue, and even purple.
I had before observed the same flower possessing different colors in different
parts of the country, and once a great number of liver-colored flowers,
which elsewhere were yellow. Even the color of the birds changed
with the district we passed through; but never before did I see
such a marked change as from yellow to blue, repeated again and again
on the same plain. Another beautiful plant attracted my attention
so strongly on these plains that I dismounted to examine it.
To my great delight I found it to be an old home acquaintance,
a species of Drosera, closely resembling our own sundew (`Drosera Anglia').
The flower-stalk never attains a height of more than two or three inches,
and the leaves are covered with reddish hairs, each of which
has a drop of clammy fluid at its tip, making the whole appear
as if spangled over with small diamonds. I noticed it first in the morning,
and imagined the appearance was caused by the sun shining on drops of dew;
but, as it continued to maintain its brilliancy during the heat of the day,
I proceeded to investigate the cause of its beauty, and found
that the points of the hairs exuded pure liquid, in, apparently,
capsules of clear, glutinous matter. They were thus like dewdrops
preserved from evaporation. The clammy fluid is intended to entrap insects,
which, dying on the leaf, probably yield nutriment to the plant.
During our second day on this extensive plain I suffered from
my twenty-seventh attack of fever, at a part where no surface-water
was to be found. We never thought it necessary to carry water with us
in this region; and now, when I was quite unable to move on,
my men soon found water to allay my burning thirst by digging with sticks
a few feet beneath the surface. We had thus an opportunity of observing
the state of these remarkable plains at different seasons of the year.
Next day we pursued our way, and on the 8th of June we forded the Lotembwa
to the N.W. of Dilolo, and regained our former path.
The Lotembwa here is about a mile wide, about three feet deep,
and full of the lotus, papyrus, arum, mat-rushes, and other aquatic plants.
I did not observe the course in which the water flowed while crossing;
but, having noticed before that the Lotembwa on the other side
of the Lake Dilolo flowed in a southerly direction, I supposed
that this was simply a prolongation of the same river beyond Dilolo,
and that it rose in this large marsh, which we had not seen
in our progress to the N.W. But when we came to the Southern Lotembwa,
we were informed by Shakatwala that the river we had crossed
flowed in an opposite direction - not into Dilolo, but into the Kasai.
This phenomenon of a river running in opposite directions
struck even his mind as strange; and, though I did not observe the current,
simply from taking it for granted that it was toward the lake,
I have no doubt that his assertion, corroborated as it was by others,
is correct, and that the Dilolo is actually the watershed between
the river systems that flow to the east and west.
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