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.
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