COAL-SEAMS. 411 



the throat, but is not inflammable, as it did not burn when 

 1 held a bunch of lighted grass over the bubbles. The 

 mercury rises to 158° when the thermometer is put into 

 the water in the hole; but after a few seconds it stands 

 steadily at 160°. Even when flowing over the stones the 

 water is too hot for the hand. Little fish frequently leap 

 out of the stream in the bed of which the fountain rises, 

 into the hot water, and get scalded to death. We saw a 

 frog which had performed the experiment and was now 

 cooked. The stones over which the water flows are in- 

 crusted with a white salt, and the water has a saline taste. 

 The ground has been dug out near the fountain by the 

 natives, in order to extract the salt it contains. It is 

 situated among rocks of syenitic porphyry in broad dikes, 

 and gneiss tilted on edge and having a strike to the .N.E. 

 There are many specimens of half-formed pumice, with 

 greenstone and lava. Some of the sandstone strata are 

 dislocated by a hornblende rock and by basalt, the sand- 

 stone nearest to the basalt being converted into quartz. 



The country around, as indeed all the district lying N. 

 and jS\W. of Tete, is hilly, and, the hills being covered 

 with trees, the scenery is very picturesque. The soil of 

 the valleys is very fruitful and well cultivated. There 

 would not be much difficulty in working the coal. The 

 Lofubu is about sixty yards broad : it flows perennially, 

 and at its very lowest period, which is after September, 

 there is water about eighteen inches deep, which could be 

 navigated in flat-bottomed boats. At the time of my visit 

 it was full, and the current was very strong. If the small 

 cataract referred to were to be avoided, the land-carriage 

 beyond would only be about two miles. The other seams 

 farther up the river may, after passing the cataract, be 

 approached more easily than that in the Muatize: as the 

 seam, however, dips down into the stream, no drainage 

 of the mine would be required, for if water were come to 

 it would run into the stream. I did not visit the others, 

 but I was informed that there are seams in the independent 



