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.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 407 of 1070
Words from 116584 to 116869
of 306638
