192 CAPTAIN TUCKEY'S NARRATIVE. 



through tlie 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 Avhirlpools 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 Avide 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. 



