It Is Often, Even Here,
As Broad As That River At London Bridge, But, Without Accurate
Measurement Of The Depth, One Could Not Say Which Contained Most Water.
There Are, However, Many And Serious Obstacles To A Continued Navigation
For Hundreds Of Miles At A Stretch.
About ten miles below
the confluence of the Loeti, for instance, there are many large sand-banks
in the
Stream; then you have a hundred miles to the River Simah,
where a Thames steamer could ply at all times of the year;
but, again, the space between Simah and Katima-molelo
has five or six rapids with cataracts, one of which, Gonye,
could not be passed at any time without portage. Between these rapids
there are reaches of still, deep water, of several miles in length.
Beyond Katima-molelo to the confluence of the Chobe you have nearly
a hundred miles again, of a river capable of being navigated in the same way
as in the Barotse valley.
Now I do not say that this part of the river presents a very inviting prospect
for extemporaneous European enterprise; but when we have a pathway
which requires only the formation of portages to make it equal to our canals
for hundreds of miles, where the philosophers supposed there was naught
but an extensive sandy desert, we must confess that the future partakes
at least of the elements of hope. My deliberate conviction was and is
that the part of the country indicated is as capable of supporting
millions of inhabitants as it is of its thousands. The grass
of the Barotse valley, for instance, is such a densely-matted mass that,
when "laid", the stalks bear each other up, so that one feels as if walking
on the sheaves of a hay-stack, and the leches nestle under it
to bring forth their young. The soil which produces this,
if placed under the plow, instead of being mere pasturage,
would yield grain sufficient to feed vast multitudes.
We now began to ascend the Leeba. The water is black in color
as compared with the main stream, which here assumes the name of Kabompo.
The Leeba flows placidly, and, unlike the parent river,
receives numbers of little rivulets from both sides. It winds slowly
through the most charming meadows, each of which has either
a soft, sedgy centre, large pond, or trickling rill down the middle.
The trees are now covered with a profusion of the freshest foliage,
and seem planted in groups of such pleasant, graceful outline
that art could give no additional charm. The grass, which had been burned off
and was growing again after the rains, was short and green,
and all the scenery so like that of a carefully-tended gentleman's park,
that one is scarcely reminded that the surrounding region
is in the hands of simple nature alone. I suspect that the level meadows
are inundated annually, for the spots on which the trees stand
are elevated three or four feet above them, and these elevations,
being of different shapes, give the strange variety of outline
of the park-like woods.
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