The Air Was As High As 96 Degrees After
Sunset; And, The Vicinity Of The Water Being The Coolest Part, We
Usually Made Our Beds Close By The River's Brink, Though There In
Danger Of Crocodiles.
Africa differs from India in the air always
becoming cool and refreshing long before the sun returns, and there
can be no doubt that we can in this country bear exposure to the sun,
which would be fatal in India.
It is probably owing to the greater
dryness of the African atmosphere that sunstroke is so rarely met
with. In twenty-two years Dr. Livingstone never met or heard of a
single case, though the protective head-dresses of India are rarely
seen.
When the water is nearly at its lowest, we occasionally meet with
small rapids which are probably not in existence during the rest of
the year. Having slept opposite the rivulet Bume, which comes from
the south, we passed the island of Nakansalo, and went down the
rapids of the same name on the 17th, and came on the morning of the
19th to the more serious ones of Nakabele, at the entrance to Kariba.
The Makololo guided the canoes admirably through the opening in the
dyke. When we entered the gorge we came on upwards of thirty
hippopotami: a bank near the entrance stretches two-thirds across
the narrowed river, and in the still place behind it they were
swimming about. Several were in the channel, and our canoe-men were
afraid to venture down among them, because, as they affirm, there is
commonly an ill-natured one in a herd, which takes a malignant
pleasure in upsetting canoes.
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