192 CAPTAIN TUCKEY’S NARRATIVE. 
through the valley of Bemba, we ascended the hills that 
line the river, and which are more fatiguing than any we 
had. yet met with, being very steep, and totally composed 
of broken pieces of quartz, resembling a newly made 
limestone road. At four o’clock we came in sight of the 
river, between the hills; and instead of getting back at 
night, I found it would be nearly dark before we could 
reach Sangalla, and, as I expected, we only reached it at 
sunset. Including the windings of the river, I suppose it 
about ten miles above Mavoonda; the intermediate reach 
running due north, studded with several islands, but the 
stream not very strong. At Sangalla the river is crossed by 
a great ledge of slate rocks, leaving only a passage close to 
the foot of the hill on the left bank about fifty yards wide, 
through which the stream runs at least eight miles an hour, 
forming whirlpools in the middle, whose vortices occupy at 
least half the breadth of the channel, and must be fatal to 
any canoe that should get into them. About two miles lower 
down the river the stream breaks quite across over a sunken _ 
ledge of rocks. Above, the river forms a wide expanse 
east and west, but filled with rocky islets; the great breadth 
however reduces the velocity of the stream, so that canoes 
easily pass. About two miles above the commencement 
of the narrrow channel there is a ferry. 
