COAL 133 



the Zambezi, which gives the heavy ore inexpensive 

 water transport to the hold of the ocean steamer. 



There exist, near to Tete, extensive deposits of 

 coal, and samples shown to me by his Excellency 

 the Governor were of a singularly promising 

 quality. Obtained from near the surface, it was 

 naturally somewhat hard and shaley, but, in spite 

 of that, burned, I am informed, sufficiently well to 

 indicate that from a greater depth its quality would 

 improve. 



Here we have an important commodity, which 

 in its development would go far to facilitate exist- 

 ing means of transport. The chief fuel, used alike 

 in the furnaces of the river steamers and the boiler 

 houses of the sugar companies, is wood ; a constant 

 and growing consumption for this purpose having 

 been going on for more than twenty years — and 

 in the absence of a satisfactory substitute, will 

 doubtless continue for twenty more. It will, 

 therefore, be understood that the destruction of 

 the forest trees, with its inevitable consequent re- 

 striction of rainfall, is a matter of the deepest 

 import, and it is hoped in many quarters that 

 means may be found to turn the Zambezi coal 

 fields to account, constituting as they do so valu- 

 able a source of general convenience. 



With all its great agricultural and mineral 

 wealth, however ; with all the opportunities which 

 it offers for the employment of capital, there is one 

 grave fault which must be corrected before ever 

 this great African waterway can come to be con- 

 sidered as a river of importance. That fault lies 

 in its shallowness. The great stream which might 



