158 STEPPES AND DESERTS. 



swelling of the ground separates the domains or basins of 

 these rivers. We know, indeed, but imperfectly, how such a 

 swelling or elevation may be connected with the mountains of 

 Habesch, and in what manner it may be continued southward 

 beyond the equator. Probably, and this is also the opinion 

 of my friend Carl Bitter, the Lupata mountains, which, 

 according to the excellent Wilhelm Peters, extend to 

 26 S. latitude, are connected with the elevated parts of 

 the Earth's surface on the north side of the equator, (or 

 with the Abyssinian mountains), by the mountains of the 

 Moon. The word " Lupata," we learn from the last-named 

 African traveller, is used in the language of Tette as an 

 adjective, meaning " closed." The chain of mountains would 

 thus be called the "closed" or " barred." "The Lupata chain, 

 of Portuguese writers," says Peters, " is about 90 legoas or 

 leagues from the mouth of the Zambeze, and is only about 

 two thousand feet high. The direction of this mountain 

 rampart is north and south, but with occasional bends 

 alternately to the east and to the west. It is sometimes 

 interrupted by plains. Along the whole of the Zanzibar 

 coast, the traders into the interior speak of this long but 

 not very elevated ridge, which extends from 6 to 26 S. 

 latitude, as far as the Factory of Lourenzo-Marques, on 

 the Rio de Espiritu Santo (in the Bay da Lagoa, or Delagoa 

 Bay of the English). The farther the Lupata chain 

 advances towards the south, the nearer it approaches the 

 coast, from which it is only fifteen legoas distant at Lourenzo- 

 Marques." 



