The Falls Of Gonye Furnished An Outlet
To The Lake Of The Barotse Valley, And So Of The Other Great Lakes
Of Remote Times.
The Congo also finds its way to the sea
through a narrow fissure, and so does the Orange River
In the west;
while other rents made in the eastern ridge, as the Victoria Falls and those
to the east of Tanganyenka, allowed the central waters to drain eastward.
All the African lakes hitherto discovered are shallow, in consequence of being
the mere `residua' of very much larger ancient bodies of water.
There can be no doubt that this continent was, in former times,
very much more copiously supplied with water than at present,
but a natural process of drainage has been going on for ages.
Deep fissures are made, probably by the elevation of the land,
proofs of which are seen in modern shells imbedded in marly tufa
all round the coast-line. Whether this process of desiccation is as rapid
throughout the continent as, in a letter to the late Dean Buckland,
in 1843, I showed to have been the case in the Bechuana country,
it is not for me to say; but, though there is a slight tradition of the waters
having burst through the low hills south of the Barotse,
there is none of a sudden upheaval accompanied by an earthquake.
The formation of the crack of Mosioatunya is perhaps too ancient for that;
yet, although information of any remarkable event is often transmitted
in the native names, and they even retain a tradition which looks
like the story of Solomon and the harlots, there is not a name
like Tom Earthquake or Sam Shake-the-ground in the whole country.
They have a tradition which may refer to the building of the Tower of Babel,
but it ends in the bold builders getting their crowns cracked
by the fall of the scaffolding; and that they came out of a cave
called "Loey" (Noe?) in company with the beasts, and all point to it
in one direction, viz., the N.N.E. Loey, too, is an exception
in the language, as they use masculine instead of neuter pronouns to it.
If we take a glance back at the great valley, the form the rivers have taken
imparts the idea of a lake slowly drained out, for they have
cut out for themselves beds exactly like what we may see in the soft mud
of a shallow pool of rain-water, when that is let off by a furrow.
This idea would probably not strike a person on coming first into the country,
but more extensive acquaintance with the river system certainly would convey
the impression. None of the rivers in the valley of the Leeambye
have slopes down to their beds. Indeed, many parts are much like the Thames
at the Isle of Dogs, only the Leeambye has to rise twenty or thirty feet
before it can overflow some of its meadows. The rivers have each
a bed of low water - a simple furrow cut sharply out of the calcareous tufa
which lined the channel of the ancient lake - and another of inundation.
When the beds of inundation are filled, they assume the appearance
of chains of lakes. When the Clyde fills the holms ("haughs")
above Bothwell Bridge and retires again into its channel,
it resembles the river we are speaking of, only here there are no high lands
sloping down toward the bed of inundation, for the greater part of the region
is not elevated fifty feet above them. Even the rocky banks of the Leeambye
below Gonye, and the ridges bounding the Barotse valley,
are not more than two or three hundred feet in altitude
over the general dead level. Many of the rivers are very tortuous
in their course, the Chobe and Simah particularly so; and, if we may receive
the testimony of the natives, they form what anatomists call `anastamosis',
or a network of rivers. Thus, for instance, they assured me
that if they go up the Simah in a canoe, they can enter the Chobe,
and descend that river to the Leeambye; or they may go up the Kama
and come down the Simah; and so in the case of the Kafue.
It is reputed to be connected in this way with the Leeambye in the north,
and to part with the Loangwa; and the Makololo went from the one
into the other in canoes. And even though the interlacing may not be
quite to the extent believed by the natives, the country is so level
and the rivers so tortuous that I see no improbability in the conclusion
that here is a network of waters of a very peculiar nature.
The reason why I am disposed to place a certain amount of confidence
in the native reports is this: when Mr. Oswell and I discovered the Zambesi
in the centre of the continent in 1851, being unable to ascend it
at the time ourselves, we employed the natives to draw a map
embodying their ideas of that river. We then sent the native map home
with the same view that I now mention their ideas of the river system,
namely, in order to be an aid to others in farther investigations.
When I was able to ascend the Leeambye to 14 Deg. south,
and subsequently descend it, I found, after all the care I could bestow,
that the alterations I was able to make in the original native plan
were very trifling. The general idea their map gave was wonderfully accurate;
and now I give, in the larger map appended, their views of the other rivers,
in the hope that they may prove helpful to any traveler
who may pursue the investigation farther.
24TH. We remained a day at the village of Moyara. Here the valley
in which the Lekone flows trends away to the eastward, while our course
is more to the northeast. The country is rocky and rough,
the soil being red sand, which is covered with beautiful green trees,
yielding abundance of wild fruits.
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