36 KEBRABASA RAPIDS. CHAP. II. 



CHAPTER II. 



Kebrabasa Rapids — Tette — African fever — Exploration of the 

 Shire — Discovery of Lake Shirwa. 



Our curiosity had been so much excited by the reports we 

 had heard of the Kebrabasa rapids, that we resolved to 

 make a short examination of them, and seized the opportu- 

 nity of the Zambesi being unusually low, to endeavour to 

 ascertain their character while uncovered by the water. 

 We reached them on the 9 th of November. The country 

 between Tette and Panda Mokua, where navigation ends, 

 is well wooded and hilly on both banks. Panda Mokua is 

 a hill two miles below the rapids, capped with dolomite 

 containing copper ore. 



Conspicuous among the trees, for its gigantic size, and 

 bark coloured exactly like Egyptian syenite, is the burly 

 Baobab. It often makes the other trees of the forest look 

 like mere bushes in comparison. A hollow one, already 

 mentioned, is 74 feet in circumference, another was 84, 

 and some have been found on the West Coast which 

 measure 100 feet. The lofty range of Kebrabasa, con- 

 sisting chiefly of conical hills, covered with scraggy trees, 

 crosses the Zambesi, and confines it within a narrow, 

 rough, and rocky dell of about a quarter of a mile in 

 breadth; over this, which may be called the flood-bed of 

 the river, large masses of rock are huddled in indescribable 

 confusion. The drawing, for the use of which, and of 



