

THE LEEBA. 287 



Now I do not say that this part of the river presents a very 

 inviting prospect for extemporaneous European enterprise ; but 

 when we have a pathway which requires only the formation of 

 portages to make it equal to our canals for hundreds of miles, 

 where the philosophers supposed there was naught but an ex- 

 tensive sandy desert, we must confess that the future partakes at 

 least of the elements of hope. My deliberate conviction was 

 and is that the part of the country indicated is as capable of 

 supporting millions of inhabitants as it is of its thousands. The 

 grass of the Barotse valley, for instance, is such a densely- 

 matted mass that, when "laid," the stalks bear each other up, so 

 that one feels as if walking on the sheaves of a hay-stack, and 

 the leches nestle under it to bring forth their young. The soil 

 which produces this, if placed under the plow, instead of being 

 mere pasturage, would yield grain sufficient to feed vast multi- 

 tudes. 



We now began to ascend the Leeba. The water is black in 

 color as compared with the main stream, which here assumes 

 the name of Kabompo. The Leeba flows placidly, and, unlike 

 the parent river, receives numbers of little rivulets from both 

 sides. It winds slowly through the most charming meadows, 

 each of which has either a soft, sedgy centre, large pond, or trick- 

 ling rill down the middle. The trees are now covered with a pro- 

 fusion of the freshest foliage, and seem planted in groups of such 

 pleasant, graceful outline that art could give no additional charm. 

 The grass, which had been burned off and was growing again aft- 

 er the rains, was short and green, and all the scenery so like that 

 of a carefully- tended gentleman's park, that one is scarcely re- 

 minded that the surrounding region is in the hands of simple 

 nature alone. I suspect that the level meadows are inundated 

 annually, for the spots on which the trees stand are elevated 

 three or four feet above them, and these elevations, being of dif- 

 ferent shapes, give the strange variety of outline of the park-like 

 woods. Numbers of a fresh-water shell are scattered all over 

 these valleys. The elevations, as I have observed elsewhere, are 

 of a soft, sandy soil, and the meadows of black, rich alluvial loam. 

 There are many beautiful flowers, and many bees to sip their 

 nectar. We found plenty of honey in the woods, and saw the 



