334 KEBRABASA RAPIDS. Chap. XVI. 



nearly six knots an hour ; this is the most rapid part of the 

 Zambesi, except in actual cataracts. In the space below 

 Zuinbo, and on to Chicova, the river is again broad and of easy- 

 navigation. Chicova, of which geographers have spoken some- 

 times as a kingdom, and sometimes as a cataract, is a district 

 having a fertile plain on the south bank, and both sides of 

 the river were formerly well cultivated; but now it has no 

 population. 



We entered Kebrabasa rapids, at the east end of Chicova, 

 in the canoes, and went down a number of miles, until the 

 river narrowed into a groove of fifty or sixty yards wide, of 

 which we have already spoken in describing the flood-bed and 

 channel of low water. The navigation then became difficult 

 and dangerous. A fifteen feet fall of the water in our absence 

 had developed many cataracts. Two of our canoes passed safely 

 down a narrow channel, which, bifurcating, had an ugly whirl- 

 pool at the rocky partition between the two branches, the deep 

 hole in the whirls at times opening and then shutting. The 

 Doctor's canoe came next, and seemed to be drifting broadside 

 into the open vortex, in spite of the utmost exertions of the 

 paddlers. The rest were expecting to have to pull to the 

 rescue ; the men saying, " Look where these people are going ! — 

 look, look ! " — when a loud crash burst on our ears. Dr. Kirk's 

 canoe was dashed on a projection of the perpendicular rocks, 

 by a sudden and mysterious boiling up of the river, which 

 occurs at irregular intervals. Dr. Kirk was seen resisting the 

 sucking-down action of the water, which must have been 

 fifteen fathoms deep, and raising hiinself by his arms on to 

 the ledge, while his steersman, holding on to the same rocks, 

 saved the canoe ; but nearly all its contents were swept away 

 down the stream. Dr. Livingstone's canoe meanwhile, which 

 had distracted the men's attention, was saved by the cavity in 

 the whirlpool filling up as the frightful eddy was reached. A 



