132 THE PRAZOES 



mineral wealth in this portion of Zambezia than 

 all the gold which in the future will be wrested 

 from nature's stronghold, is the copper which has 

 been found to exist between the Lupata Gorge and 

 the Coroabassa Rapids. Pandamacua is a name 

 which has been given to an extensive rocky 

 mountain chain situated within this area, and the 

 name in the local dialect of chi-Nyungwe is said to 

 mean " Fill yourself with copper." Be this as it 

 may, very important discoveries of this valuable 

 metal have been made in the mica-schistose for- 

 mation presented. It occurs in several forms, those 

 of cuprite, malachite, native copper, and several 

 others. Ancient workings in two long lines show 

 plainly that of old considerable development by 

 rudimentary means was here carried out, and recent 

 investigations have gone far to lend colour to the 

 supposition that important deposits are here awaiting 

 discovery. In one case a tunnel twenty-four yards 

 in length was driven into an ancient working from 

 which ore was obtained bearing native copper, 

 malachite, and the formation known as " copper 

 glance." Of this forty-five tons were shipped to 

 London. I regret I am unable to remember the 

 amount of copper which this ore produced, but it 

 is within my recollection that the figures submitted 

 to me at the Mines Department at Tete proved 

 it to be phenomenally rich. Much work of a 

 prospecting character undertaken by private in- 

 dividuals tends to show that copper is, without 

 doubt, very extensively deposited hereabout, and 

 the chief advantage of the discovery consists in the 

 fact that the fields are only about two miles from 



