TETE 85 



run up several hundreds of feet, and descend sheer 

 into the water, which is here of great depth. They 

 are the nesting places of marabou storks, eagles, 

 and other large raptores, and furnish a striking 

 termination to a grand piece of river scenery. 

 Thenceforward until Tete is reached, the aspect 

 of the Zambezi does not diiFer widely from the 

 appearance it presented below the gorge, save for 

 the increasing barrenness and stoniness of its 

 banks. 



When I was asked my opinion of the appearance 

 of Tete, I replied that I found it a piquant com- 

 bination of great picturesqueness and repellent 

 ugliness, and that is what in reality it is. From 

 any elevated point one casts one's eyes northward 

 and westward, distance obliterating the unlovely 

 elements in the picture, and the whole is harmonious 

 and soothing. One sees a river 1,000 yards wide, 

 flowing past a thickly wooded island of great beauty, 

 and beyond the farther tree-clad river banks, the 

 soft efffect of purple-shaded mountain chains, mark- 

 ing for scores upon scores of miles the long weari- 

 some road which leads to North-Eastern Rhodesia. 

 What one fortunately does not see in this har- 

 moniously blended colour scheme, is the detail 

 which would rob it of so much of its attractiveness 

 — the cracked, bare, red earth ; the smallness of 

 the badly nourished, stunted trees ; the absence 

 of shade ; the hungriness of the weather-beaten, 

 igneous rock, — the absence, in a word, of that 

 exuberance of tropical vegetation which has lent 

 such grace and charm to the lower courses of the 

 Zambezi. 



