The Course Of The Nile
Being In The Opposite Direction To This, It Does Not Receive
These Subsidiary Waters, And Hence Its Inundation Is Recognized
All The Way Along Its Course.
If the Leeambye were prolonged southward
into the Cape Colony, its flood would be identical with that of the
Nile.
It would not be influenced by any streams in the Kalahari, for there,
as in a corresponding part of the Nile, there would be no feeders.
It is to be remembered that the great ancient river which flowed
to the lake at Boochap took this course exactly, and probably flowed thither
until the fissure of the falls was made.
This flood having filled the river, we found the numerous rivulets
which flow into it filled also, and when going along the Zambesi,
we lost so much time in passing up each little stream
till we could find a ford about waist deep, and then returning to the bank,
that I resolved to leave the river altogether, and strike away
to the southeast. We accordingly struck off when opposite the hill Pinkwe,
and came into a hard Mopane country. In a hole of one of the mopane-trees
I noticed that a squirrel (`Sciurus cepapi') had placed
a great number of fresh leaves over a store of seed. It is not against
the cold of winter that they thus lay up food, but it is a provision
against the hot season, when the trees have generally no seed.
A great many silicified trees are met with lying on the ground
all over this part of the country; some are broken off horizontally,
and stand upright; others are lying prone, and broken across
into a number of pieces.
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