376 HILL KASALA. Chap. XIX. 



them. The food is very cheap, but it was generally made dear 

 enough, until I refused to allow him to come near the place 

 where we were bargaining. But he took us safely down to 

 Ambaca, and I was glad to see, on my return to Cassange, that 

 he was promoted to be sergeant-major of a company of militia. 



Having left Cassange on the 21st, we passed across the re- 

 maining portion of this excessively fertile valley to the foot of 

 Tala Mungongo. We crossed a fine little stream called the Lui 

 on the 22nd, and another named the Luare on the 24th, then 

 slept at the bottom of the height, which is from a thousand to 

 fifteen hundred feet. The clouds came floating along the valley, 

 and broke against the sides of the ascent, and the dripping rain 

 on the tall grass, made the slaps in the face it gave, when the 

 hand or a stick was not held up before it, anything but agreeable. 

 This edge of the valley is exactly like the other ; jutting spurs 

 and defiles give the red ascent the same serrated appearance as 

 that which we descended from the highlands of Londa. The 

 whole of this vast valley has been removed by denudation, for 

 pieces of the plateau which once filled the now vacant space 

 stand in it, and present the same structure of red horizontal 

 strata of equal altitudes with those of the acclivity which we 

 are now about to ascend. One of these insulated masses, named 

 Kasala, bore E.S.E. from the place where we made our exit 

 from the valley, and about ten miles W.S.W. from the village 

 of Cassange. It is remarkable for its perpendicular sides ; even 

 the natives find it extremely difficult, almost impossible, to reach 

 its summit, though there is the temptation of marabou-nests and 

 feathers, which are highly prized. There is a small lake reported 

 to exist on its southern end, and, during the rainy season, a sort 

 of natural moat is formed around the bottom. What an acqui- 

 sition tins would have been in feudal times in England ! There 

 is land sufficient for considerable cultivation on the top, with 

 almost perpendicular sides more than a thousand feet in height. 



We had not yet got a clear idea of the nature of Tala Mun- 

 gongo. A gentleman at Cassange described it as a range of very 

 high mountains, which it would take four hours to climb ; so, 

 though the rain and grass had wetted us miserably, and I was suf- 

 fering from an attack of fever got while observing by night for the 

 position of Cassange, I eagerly commenced the ascent. The path 



