TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 101 



lulah or " Olifant's EiYier," pass on the west and north of the to-mi of Origstadt, and 

 appear to join after passing down theDralvensberg, which, rising near Natal, stretches 

 parallel with the coast far to the north, and is in fact the sea face of the great in- 

 terior plateau (which, however, where the Limpopo rises is broken into rugged hills, 

 instead of showing the dead level in which the Okovango rises near the west coast). 



The descent of the Drakensberg occupied an entire day ; and the country between 

 it and the sea was level, sprinkled with bush and forest, and abounding with game. 

 lie crossed the Manice, the Omquinie, and the Tamatie, all of which rise in the 

 Urakensberg, and are not connected with the Limpopo, and which at their junction 

 form a large sluggish sheet of water, probably the same seen by LouL" Triechard 

 about twenty years before. Canoes were used by the natives ; and the grea;>„:lu,, 6- 

 dealing Chief Mannekos held the country to the east. The Mattol, a broad, sluggish, 

 marshy river, was crossed above where it falls into the bay, and the waggons halted 

 on the beach opposite a tongue of sand with about twenty huts, constituting the 

 village of Lorenzo Marques, which is isolated at high water. 



To the east of this was the Manice, with 8 fathoms at its mouth, and 2 at forty 

 miles up, where the smaller slave schooners went to receive their cargoes. All the 

 party, except Mr. Coqui, died of fever and fatigue dm-ing the return jom-ney ; the 

 messengers sent ■s\'ith letters perished on the route ; only one reached his destina- 

 tion, and two young farmers with fresh oxen came immediately from Origstadt, and 

 were fortimately in tune to rescue Mr. Coqui. 



Mr. Gassiott, who travelled in 1851-52, heard that the Limpopo and Elephant 

 rivers, after joining, flowed to Inhambane. 



Mr. J. Chapman told me that his partner Edwards, visiting Moselekatse, asked 

 particularly about the mouth of the I^impopo, and was told that lower down it was 

 called Saabe, and the direction in which the Matabili pointed corresponds exactly 

 with the position of Sabia. Chaijman considered the information thus obtained to 

 be thoroughly trustworthy ; and I may add that when I have tested the Iniowledge 

 of the natives, even in the dark, I have found some of them point out the direction 

 of distant places as accurately as I could set them with a pocket compass. 



While I was in the Transvaal I was told of natives to the north who retained 

 many Mahometan customs, and also of ancient buildings of stone in ruins. 



These are mentioned in the early Portuguese records, which attribute them to 

 the Queen of Sheba; and about 1854 or 1855 two gentlemen of the Ehenish 

 Mission Society obtained leave to visit them, but were deterred by the prevalence 

 of small-pox. The natives described to them pyramids, subterranean galleries, 

 sphjTixes, and hieroglj-phic inscriptions ; and whatever be the character of these 

 ruins, there is no doubt but they are woi-thy of careful investigation. 



The Zambesi and its prohahle Westernmost Source. 

 Bij Thomas Baines, F.E.G.S. 



The Zambesi flowing into the Indian Ocean, in latitude between 18° and 19° 

 south, drains nearly all that part of Africa lying between the parallels of 10° and 

 20°. During nearly half its course from the western side of the elevated plateau 

 of the interior it is a broad siu-face river, in which open reaches navigable for many 

 miles alternate with extensive swamps so choked with reeds, rising from 10 or 15 

 feet below the water to an equal height above, that it is dilhcult to force a canoe 

 through them. Nearly in the centre of the continent (lat. 17° 55' 4" S., long, ap- 

 proximate 25° 47' E.), where the river is 1900 yards in breadth, a tremendous 

 chasm, rifted right across it, engulphs the water 400 feet into the earth, and foi-ms 

 the mighty cataract called the Mosi-o-a-tuuya (smoke-sounding), or Victoria Falls ; 

 the width" of this chasm is from 75 to 130 yards, and the spray cloud (by approxi- 

 mate measurement) rises 1200 feet, showing under the tropic sun a rainbow of sm-- 

 passiug brilliancy, and keeping ever wet the dense forests on the verge. A little 

 more than two-thirds from the western end the dark portals of the outlet allow the 

 water, now compressed into a deep green stream, to escape through a prolongation 

 of the chasm, winding and redoubling abruptly for many miles, opening into long 

 navigable reaches, or closing in narrow mountain-gorges. 



The rock seems split from the centre to the sea, a distance of 800 miles, by some 

 convulsion of natiu-e, the resemblance of the gorges of Lupata and Kebrabasa to 



