BANKS OF THE CHOBE. 133 



a good small telescope with a stand capable of being 

 screwed into a tree. 



11th of November, 1853. — Left the town of Linyanti, 

 accompanied by Sekeletu and his principal men, to embark 

 on the Chobe. The chief came to the river in order to see 

 that all was right at parting. , We crossed five branches 

 of the Chobe before reaching the main stream : this 

 ramification must be the reason why it appeared so 

 small to Mr. Oswell and myself in 1851. When all the 

 departing branches re-enter, it is a large, deep river. The 

 spot of embarkation was the identical island where we met 

 Sebituane, first known as the island of Maunku, one of his 

 wives. The chief lent me his own canoe; and, as it was 

 broader than usual, I could turn about in it with ease. 



The Chobe is much infested by hippopotami, and, as 

 certain elderly males are expelled the herd, they become 

 soured in their temper, and so misanthropic as to attack 

 every canoe that passes near them. 



The course of the river we found to be extremely tor- 

 tuous ; so much so, indeed, as to carry us to all points of the 

 compass every dozen miles. Some of us walked from a bend 

 at the village of JVIoremi to another nearly due east of that 

 point in six hours, while the canoes, going at more than 

 double our speed, took twelve to accomplish the voyage 

 between the same two places.. And though the river is 

 from thirteen to fifteen feet in depth at its lowest ebb, and 

 broad enough to allow a steamer to ply upon it, the sud- 

 denness of the bendings would prevent navigation; but, 

 should the country ever become civilized, the Chobe would 

 be a convenient natural canal. We spent forty-two and a 

 half hours, paddling at the rate of five miles an hour, in 

 coming from Linyanti to the confluence; there we found a 

 dike of amygdaloid lying across the Leeambye. 



The actual point of confluence of the Chobe and the 

 Leeambye is ill defined, on account of each dividing into 

 several branches as they inosculate ; but when the whole 

 body of water collects into one bed it is a goodly sight 



12 



