48 MOZAMBIQUE 



in the first place, in the upper reaches and along 

 the banks of the river, where, as explained above, 

 it is generally higher and drier. The margin of 

 safety is indicated by a change in the character 

 of the vegetation which the practised eye soon 

 detects. The swamps behind this margin are 

 sometimes capable of being drained, especially if 

 the bend of the river makes a re-entering angle, 

 shortening the distance of the outlet. The ex- 

 istence of a swamp would not, therefore, be 

 sufficient grounds for rejecting a block unless the 

 difficulty of draining it proved to be too great. 

 The soil in these upper reaches is a mixture of 

 clay and loam, exceedingly fertile. The banks of 

 the river are only 6 or 8 feet high, so the 

 water-level, though low enough to permit of the 

 free aeration of the soil and nitrification of 

 the organic matter, is yet well within the reach 

 of the roots of plants which draw their supplies 

 of water by pumping it up from below, not by 

 soaking it in as it descends. While mealie crops 

 in other parts of the district have failed or are 

 wilting for the want of rain, on this soil, the most 

 fertile in the Incomati Valley, they are tall and 

 green and vigorous. 



Magude itself, built on a bold intruding bluff, 

 beneath which the shining stream flows tran- 

 quilly between wooded banks, overlooks a vast 



