GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE. 607 



shake off the seeds ; he then picks them up singly and eats them. 

 Or he may he seen standing by the masuka and other fruit-trees 

 patiently picking off the sweet fruits one by one. He also digs 

 up bulbs and tubers, but none of these are thoroughly digested. 

 Bruce remarked upon the undigested bits of wood seen in their 

 droppings, and he must have observed, too, that neither leaves nor 

 seeds are changed by passing through the alimentary canal. The 

 woody fibre of roots and branches is dropped in the state of tow, 

 the nutritious matter alone having been extracted. This capabil- 

 ity of removing all the nourishment, and the selection of those 

 kinds of food which contain great quantities of mucilage and gum, 

 accounts for the fact that herds of elephants produce but small ef- 

 fect upon the vegetation of a country — quality being more requi- 

 site than quantity. The amount of internal fat found in them 

 makes them much prized by the inhabitants, who are all very fond 

 of it, both for food and ointment. 



After leaving the elephant valley we passed through a very beau- 

 tiful country, but thinly inhabited by man. The underlying rock 

 is trap, and dikes of talcose gneiss. The trap is often seen tilted 

 on its edge, or dipping a little either to the north or south. The 

 strike is generally tQ the northeast, the direction we are going. 

 About Losito we found the trap had given place to hornblende 

 schist, mica schist, and various schorly rocks. We had now come 

 into the region in which the' appearance of the rocks conveys the 

 impression of a great force having acted along the bed of the Zam- 

 besi. Indeed, I was led to the belief from seeing the manner in 

 which the rocks have been thrust away on both sides from its bed, 

 that the power which formed the crack of the falls had given 

 direction to the river below, and opened a bed for it all the way 

 from the falls to beyond the gorge of Lupata. 



Passing the rivulet Losito, and through the ranges of hills, we 

 reached the residence of Semalembue on the 18th. His village 

 i3 situated at the bottom of ranges through which the Kafue 

 finds a passage, and close to the bank of that river. The Kafue, 

 sometimes called Kahowhe or Bashukulompo River, is upward 

 of two hundred yards wide here, and full of hippopotami, the 

 young of which may be seen perched on the necks of their 

 dams. At this point we had reached about the same level as 

 Linyanti. 



