566 GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE. Chap. XXVIII. 



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

 them. Or he may be 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 capa- 

 bility 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 

 effect upon the vegetation of a country — quality being more 

 requisite 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 though a very 

 beautiful country, but thinly inhabited by man. The underlying 

 rock is trap, and dykes 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 to the N.E., 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 Zambesi. 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 is 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 

 upwards of 200 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. 



