The Water Of The Lake Is Perfectly Fresh When Full, But Brackish When Low;
And That Coming Down The Tamunak'le We Found To Be So Clear, Cold, And Soft,
The Higher We Ascended, That The Idea Of Melting Snow Was Suggested
To Our Minds.
We found this region, with regard to that
from which we had come, to be clearly a hollow, the lowest point
being Lake Kumadau; the point of the ebullition of water,
as shown by one of Newman's barometric thermometers, was only between
207-1/2 Deg.
And 206 Deg., giving an elevation of not much more
than two thousand feet above the level of the sea. We had descended
above two thousand feet in coming to it from Kolobeng.
It is the southern and lowest part of the great river system beyond,
in which large tracts of country are inundated annually by tropical rains,
hereafter to be described. A little of that water, which in the countries
farther north produces inundation, comes as far south as 20d 20',
the latitude of the upper end of the lake, and instead of
flooding the country, falls into the lake as into a reservoir.
It begins to flow down the Embarrah, which divides into the rivers
Tzo and Teoughe. The Tzo divides into the Tamunak'le and Mababe;
the Tamunak'le discharges itself into the Zouga, and the Teoughe
into the lake. The flow begins either in March or April,
and the descending waters find the channels of all these rivers dried out,
except in certain pools in their beds, which have long dry spaces
between them. The lake itself is very low. The Zouga is but
a prolongation of the Tamunak'le, and an arm of the lake
reaches up to the point where the one ends and the other begins.
The last is narrow and shallow, while the Zouga is broad and deep.
The narrow arm of the lake, which on the map looks like
a continuation of the Zouga, has never been observed to flow either way.
It is as stagnant as the lake itself.
The Teoughe and Tamunak'le, being essentially the same river,
and receiving their supplies from the same source (the Embarrah or Varra),
can never outrun each other. If either could, or if the Teoughe
could fill the lake - a thing which has never happened in modern times -
then this little arm would prove a convenient escapement
to prevent inundation. If the lake ever becomes lower
than the bed of the Zouga, a little of the water of the Tamunak'le
might flow into it instead of down the Zouga; we should then have
the phenomenon of a river flowing two ways; but this has never been observed
to take place here, and it is doubtful if it ever can occur in this locality.
The Zouga is broad and deep when it leaves the Tamunak'le,
but becomes gradually narrower as you descend about two hundred miles;
there it flows into Kumadau, a small lake about three or four miles broad
and twelve long.
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