2 MR. C, F. M. SWYNNERTON ON 
Mr. SWYNNERTON’S ACCOUNT OF HIS EXPEDITION. 
The tract that we commonly call Gazaland extends roughly from some 
distance to the south of Delagoa Bay to the Umvumvumvu, Lusitu, and Buzt 
rivers, the sea bounding it on the east and the River Sabi on the west. 
Quite the most varied and striking portion of the country thus defined is 
the Melsetter district of South-Eastern Rhodesia, with those portions of 
Portuguese territory which immediately adjoin it. Approaching it south wards. 
from Umtali, and already well acquainted with other parts of Rhodesia, 
we were at once struck with the immense change in the appearance of the 
country which we found on crossing the River Umvumvumyu. For two 
days we tramped monotonously through a barren though picturesque 
wilderness of “ kopjes,” covered with the ubiquitous ** Mutsatsa ” ( Brachy- 
еда Втадае?, Harms), and topped invariably with the enormous granite 
boulders that are so universal a feature of the Rhodesian landscape. But 
nothing on our journey resembled in the least the great green mountains 
which spring into view when we reach the dividing river, with their dense 
short turf immensely rich in wild flowers, their heavily wooded gorges, and 
their rushing perennial streams in every glen, The walk into Melsetter over 
these mountains occupied nearly two days uutil, on reaching the high ridge 
that overhangs the little township, we came into full view of the magnificent 
range of the Chimanimani, with its bold peaks, precipices and chasms, 
towering up through the clouds and separating the Portuguese district. of 
Shaya from the grassy mountains of Melsetter. 
I visited this range in September, 1906. After a tramp chiefly downhill 
over the open grassy slopes separating Melsetter from the River Haroni— 
here a mere rivulet, but, before it joins the Lusitu, an immense torrent 
cutting its noisy way through the deepest and most precipitous gorge in the 
country—I commenced the ascent, at first over grassy but recently burnt 
foothills scantily clothed with open woods of Brachystegia or very occasionally 
with denser clumps of бараса Kirkiana. They culminated in a very broken 
steep rocky ascent, and on surmounting this I found myself forced to descend 
once more through a valley clothed with grass and dotted over with plants 
of Syzygium cordifolium before I could commence the first steep ascent 
of what still appeared to be part of the main range. This consisted of a long 
rugged line of towering white crags broken here and there by a chasm or 
densely-wooded precipitous ravine; the valley had here developed into a deep 
sharp gorge thickly clothed with trees. Through a steep, narrow, boulder- 
strewn passage flanked by towering cliffs and giving egress to a small streum 
that flowed from a dense forest-patch at its head, I eventually found my 
way toa broad turf-covered ledge near their summit, where I camped for 
the night beside a clump of four Brachystegias. 
