From The Confluence,
Where We Now Are, Down To Mosioatunya, There Are Many Long Reaches,
Where A Vessel Equal To The Thames Steamers Plying Between The Bridges
Could Run As Freely As They Do On The Thames.
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.
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