184 SEAMS OF COAL. - Chap. IX. 



CHAPTEE IX. 



Seams of coal under Tette grey sandstone — Use of coal unknown to the 

 natives — Mbia kills a hippopotamus — Traps and pitfalls — Sagacity of 

 elephants at pitfalls — White ants and then - galleries — Black soldier-ants 

 lord it over the white ants — Language of ants — Biting ants — Rogue 

 monkey respected — Native salt-making — The Mountains — Chikwanitsela 

 — Afflictions of beasts — The human buffalo — Mpende — Chilondo — 

 Monaheng murdered —Animals which have not been hunted with fire- 

 arms — Pangola — A rifle-loving Chief — Undi and fate of African empires — 

 Are Africans industrious? — Arrive at Zumbo on the Loangwa on 26th 

 June — Results of no government — Murder of Mpangue — Sequasha. . 



We were now, when we crossed the boundary rivulet Nyama- 

 tarara, out of Chicova and amongst sandstone rocks, similar 

 to those which prevail between Lupata and Kebrabasa. In 

 the latter gorge, as already mentioned, igneous and syenitic 

 masses have been acted on by some great fiery convulsion of 

 nature ; the strata are thrown into a huddled heap of confu- 

 sion. The coal has of course disappeared in Kebrabasa, but 

 is found again in Chicova. Tette grey sandstone is common 

 about Sinjere, and, wherever it is seen with fossil wood upon 

 it, coal lies beneath; and here, as at Chicova, some seams 

 crop out on the banks of the Zambesi. Looking southwards, 

 the country is open plain and woodland, with detached hills 

 and mountains in the distance ; but the latter are too far off, 

 the natives say, for them to know their names. The principal 

 hills on our right, as we look up stream, are from six to 

 twelve miles away, and occasionally they send down spurs to 

 the river, with brooks flowing through their narrow valleys. 



