78 THE RIVER ZAMBEZI AND ITS SCENERY 

 continues for ten or fifteen miles, when the height 

 of the hills somewhat increases, and the conforma- 

 tion breaks and commences to throw up wooded 

 peaks of great beauty, rough with glittering granite 

 boulders, until the domelike peak of Massowa it- 

 self, from which the range takes its name, springs 

 to fully 3,000 feet above the river. The opposite 

 or southern bank of the Zambezi gives on to almost 

 flat country, rising slightly a few miles from the 

 water and alternating wide stretches of open grass- 

 land with thick bush and forest. It is noticeable 

 that here the borassus palmS grow to much greater 

 height than is the case farther down the river, and 

 display only a very slight midway sweUing in the 

 trunk instead of the marked increase in girth which 

 is the singular characteristic of this striking palm. 

 Farther on a few hours the Massowa range gets 

 lower and lower, and finally dwindles into mere 

 low undulations too insignificant to be referred to 

 as hills. Crocodiles now become very numerous, 

 every exposed sandbank being a resting-place for 

 one or more ; several are shot, and we pass the 

 Portuguese stern-wheel gunboat Tete on her way 

 down the coast. Portugal has several light-draught 

 gunboats on the river, and doubtless they have a 

 salutary moral effect on the natives whose villages 

 border the stream ; but they always strike me as 

 being both underarmed and undermanned for work 

 of a serious character. To-night we tie up at 

 Sinjal, a wretched wooding station, containing two 

 mud houses and several piles of telegraph standards, 

 from which the following morning we are quite 

 glad to get away. The morning is lovely, with 



