816 REPORT— 1892. 



supply, and they contain valuable extracts from a report by Mr. Penning, F.G.S., 

 on that subject. If, as Mr. Penning believes, water in sufficient quantities could be 

 obtained by boring, the author thinks that the country might have a future in the 

 hands of a powerful company which could afford to open up waters and use the 

 district as a vast cattle range, but he evidently does not think it can ever be a 

 (T'ountry for farms of an ordinary size, or for agriculture in any way. 



2. The GeograpJiy nf the Zimhabive liuins in Mashonaland. 

 By J. Theodore Bent. 



The author began with a few remarks on the nature of the ruins, their position 

 and extent, the vast gold industry anciently carried on in their vicinity, and the 

 probable line of approach to them. lie then dealt with the early authorities on 

 the geography of the east coast of Africa: the Periplus, Ptolemy, Eratosthenes, 

 and the vague remarks of Herodotus. The position of Rhapta, Prasum, and 

 other points on this coast was discussed. The expedition to the land of Punt in 

 the reign of Queen llatusou, and the treasures brought back thence, and the 

 mythical expeditions related by Greeks of voyages in search of gold were then 

 dealt with, as also the Biblical and classical evidence concerning the voyages of the 

 Phosnicians and Arabians in search of gold, and the wealth of Southern Arabia in 

 the precious metal. The author then dealt with early Arabian evidence as to the 

 condition of Mashonaland in the centuries immediately after the introduction of 

 Mohammedanism, Arab travellers a.d. 8o1, and the evidence given us on this 

 subject by El Masoudi, Zaueddin, and others. The value of the Portuguese 

 evidence on this subject was thoroughly discussed from travellers and writers of 

 the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The author concluded by referring to the re- 

 discovery of the ruins by Karl Mauch, and the evidence of the finds in the recent 

 excavations, 



3. Meport of the Mashonaland Committee. — See Reports, p. 538. 



4. The Orientation and Architectural Features of the Hiiined Temples of 

 Mashonaland. Bij Robert M. W. Swan. 



The temples in Mashonaland seem all to have been oriented to either the rising 

 or the setting sun at one of the solstices, and in all the less ruinous temples very 

 obvious evidence remains of such orientation in the decoration on the exterior of 

 the walls of these temples. This decoration on the great temple consists of a 

 double band of a chevron pattern, and it extends along the part of wall which is 

 directly opposed to the rays of the rising sun at the midsummer solstice. 



Means were provided for marking the time of the occurrence of the solstice, 

 and in the interior of the great temple there is a high monolith which would 

 I'eceive the shadow of another monolith placed on the wall at the middle of the 

 decoration when the sun rose at the midsummer solstice. 



The great temple at the first glance seems to be rouglily elliptical in form, but 

 when carefully measured its walls are found to be built on a number of circular 

 curves of different radii, and the principle governing the length of these radii is 

 interesting. The great tower has a diameter at its base of 17"l7 feet (=10 cubits 

 •of 20-G2 inches), and this length multiplied by the ratio of circumference to 

 diameter (3T4) or by the square of this ratio gives either the radius or the 

 diameter, or half or double of these, of the curves of all the walls of the best 

 period which we have measured in Mashonaland. 



Altars were sometimes erected at the centres of these curves, and means were 

 provided for observing from these altars the culminations of stars of the northern 

 hemisphere. 



5. The Industrial Geography of Nyassaland. By J. Y. Buchanan, FM.S. 



