When Cicadae, Crickets, And Frogs Unite,
Their Music May Be Heard At The Distance Of A Quarter Of A Mile.
A tree attracted my attention as new, the leaves being like
those of an acacia, but the ends of the branches from which they grew
resembled closely oblong fir-cones.
The corn-poppy was abundant,
and many of the trees, flowering bulbs, and plants were identical with those
in Pungo Andongo. A flower as white as the snowdrop now begins to appear,
and farther on it spots the whole sward with its beautiful pure white.
A fresh crop appears every morning, and if the day is cloudy
they do not expand till the afternoon. In an hour or so they droop and die.
They are named by the natives, from their shape, "Tlaku ea pitse",
hoof of zebra. I carried several of the somewhat bulbous roots
of this pretty flower till I reached the Mauritius.
On the 30th we crossed the River Kalomo, which is about 50 yards broad,
and is the only stream that never dries up on this ridge.
The current is rapid, and its course is toward the south,
as it joins the Zambesi at some distance below the falls.
The Unguesi and Lekone, with their feeders, flow westward,
this river to the south, and all those to which we are about to come take
an easterly direction. We were thus at the apex of the ridge, and found that,
as water boiled at 202 Deg., our altitude above the level of the sea
was over 5000 feet. Here the granite crops out again in great rounded masses
which change the dip of the gneiss and mica schist rocks from the westward
to the eastward. In crossing the western ridge I mentioned the clay shale
or keele formation, a section of which we have in the valley of the Quango:
the strata there lie nearly horizontal, but on this ridge
the granite seems to have been the active agent of elevation,
for the rocks, both on its east and west, abut against it.
Both eastern and western ridges are known to be comparatively salubrious,
and in this respect, as well as in the general aspect of the country,
they resemble that most healthy of all healthy climates,
the interior of South Africa, near and adjacent to the Desert.
This ridge has neither fountain nor marsh upon it, and east of the Kalomo
we look upon treeless undulating plains covered with short grass.
From a point somewhat near to the great falls, this ridge or oblong mound
trends away to the northeast, and there treeless elevated plains again appear.
Then again the ridge is said to bend away from the falls to the southeast,
the Mashona country, or rather their mountains, appearing,
according to Mr. Moffat, about four days east of Matlokotloko,
the present residence of Mosilikatse. In reference to this ridge he makes
the interesting remark, "I observed a number of the Angora goat, most of them
being white; and their long soft hair, covering their entire bodies
to the ground, made them look like animals moving along without feet."*
-
* Moffat's "Visit to Mosilikatse". - Royal Geographical Society's Journal,
vol. xxvi., p. 96.
-
It is impossible to say how much farther to the north these subtending ridges
may stretch. There is reason to believe that, though the same
general form of country obtains, they are not flanked by abrupt hills
between the latitude 12 Deg. south and the equator. The inquiry is worthy
the attention of travelers. As they are known to be favorable to health,
the Makololo, who have been nearly all cut off by fevers in the valley,
declaring that here they never had a headache, they may even be recommended
as a sanatorium for those whose enterprise leads them into Africa,
either for the advancement of scientific knowledge, or for the purposes
of trade or benevolence. In the case of the eastern ridge,
we have water carriage, with only one short rapid as an obstruction,
right up to its base; and if a quick passage can be effected during
the healthy part of the year, there would be no danger of loss of health
during a long stay on these high lands afterward. How much farther
do these high ridges extend? The eastern one seems to bend in considerably
toward the great falls; and the strike of the rocks indicating that,
farther to the N.N.E. than my investigations extend, it may not,
at a few degrees of latitude beyond, be more than 300 or 350 miles
from the coast. They at least merit inquiry, for they afford
a prospect to Europeans of situations superior in point of salubrity
to any of those on the coast; and so on the western side of the continent;
for it is a fact that many parts in the interior of Angola, which were
formerly thought to be unhealthy on account of their distance inland,
have been found, as population advanced, to be the most healthy spots
in the country. Did the great Niger expedition turn back
when near such a desirable position for its stricken and prostrate members?
The distances from top to top of the ridges may be about 10 Deg. of longitude,
or 600 geographical miles. I can not hear of a hill ON either ridge,
and there are scarcely any in the space inclosed by them.
The Monakadze is the highest, but that is not more than a thousand feet
above the flat valley. On account of this want of hills
in the part of the country which, by gentle undulations, leads one insensibly
up to an altitude of 5000 feet above the level of the sea, I have adopted
the agricultural term ridges, for they partake very much of the character
of the oblong mounds with which we are all familiar. And we shall yet see
that the mountains which are met with outside these ridges
are only a low fringe, many of which are not of much greater altitude
than even the bottom of the great central valley.
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