The country between
Tette and Panda Mokua, where navigation ends, is well wooded and
hilly on both banks.
Panda Mokua is a hill two miles below the
rapids, capped with dolomite containing copper ore.
Conspicuous among the trees, for its gigantic size, and bark coloured
exactly like Egyptian syenite, is the burly Baobab. It often makes
the other trees of the forest look like mere bushes in comparison. A
hollow one, already mentioned, is 74 feet in circumference, another
was 84, and some have been found on the West Coast which measure 100
feet. The lofty range of Kebrabasa, consisting chiefly of conical
hills, covered with scraggy trees, crosses the Zambesi, and confines
it within a narrow, rough, and rocky dell of about a quarter of a
mile in breadth; over this, which may be called the flood-bed of the
river, large masses of rock are huddled in indescribable confusion.
The drawing, for the use of which, and of others, our thanks are due
to Lord Russell, conveys but a faint idea of the scene, inasmuch as
the hills which confine the river do not appear in the sketch. The
chief rock is syenite, some portions of which have a beautiful blue
tinge like lapis lazuli diffused through them; others are grey.
Blocks of granite also abound, of a pinkish tinge; and these with
metamorphic rocks, contorted, twisted, and thrown into every
conceivable position, afford a picture of dislocation or
unconformability which would gladden a geological lecturer's heart;
but at high flood this rough channel is all smoothed over, and it
then conforms well with the river below it, which is half a mile
wide. In the dry season the stream runs at the bottom of a narrow
and deep groove, whose sides are polished and fluted by the boiling
action of the water in flood, like the rims of ancient Eastern wells
by the draw-ropes. The breadth of the groove is often not more than
from forty to sixty yards, and it has some sharp turnings, double
channels, and little cataracts in it. As we steamed up, the masts of
the "Ma Robert," though some thirty feet high, did not reach the
level of the flood-channel above, and the man in the chains sung out,
"No bottom at ten fathoms." Huge pot-holes, as large as draw-wells,
had been worn in the sides, and were so deep that in some instances,
when protected from the sun by overhanging boulders, the water in
them was quite cool. Some of these holes had been worn right
through, and only the side next the rock remained; while the sides of
the groove of the flood-channel were polished as smooth as if they
had gone through the granite-mills of Aberdeen. The pressure of the
water must be enormous to produce this polish. It had wedged round
pebbles into chinks and crannies of the rocks so firmly that, though
they looked quite loose, they could not be moved except with a
hammer.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 24 of 263
Words from 12111 to 12622
of 136856
