DR. BUCKLAND. 195 



informants possess a sad proneness to l amiability,' and they will roundly 

 assert whatever they think will please you. For example : — ' Are you happy 

 as a slave?' ' 0, infinitely more so than when I was free;' and then run 

 away from their masters. But my object in making inquiries was unknown ; 

 and, when supported by the testimony of the Makololo, the statements may 

 be taken as supporting the view that the central parts of Africa south of the 

 equator, though considerably elevated above the level of the sea, form really 

 a hollow in reference to two oblong ridges on its eastern and western sides. 

 As suggestive of further inquiry only, I may mention, though not pretending 

 to have examined the pretty extensive portions of the country which came 

 under my observation with the eye and deep insight of a geologist, that the 

 general direction of the ranges of hills appears to be parallel to the major axis 

 of the continent. The dip of the strata down towards the centre of the 

 country led to the conclusion, before I knew of the existence of the ridges, 

 that Africa had in its formation been pressed up much more energetically at 

 the sides than at the centre. The force which effected this, I supposed, may 

 have been of the same nature as that which determined most recent volcanoes 

 to be in the vicinity of the sea. This seems to have been the case in Angola 

 at least ; and having probably been in operation over a vast extent of coast, 

 decided the very simple littoral outline of Africa. I am induced to make this 

 suggestion because, when the ridges are situated far from the coast, they do 

 not seem to owe their origin to recently erupted rocks. There is a section of the 

 western ridge, near Cassange, nearly a thousand feet in height; and except a 

 capping of haematite mixed with quartz pebbles, it is a mass of the red clay shale 

 termed in Scotland ' keel,' the thin strata of which are scarcely at all disturbed. 

 This keel is believed to indicate gold. Had I met with a nugget I would have 

 mounted a mule instead of the ungainly beast (his ox Sinbad) I rode. 



" I have mentioned the locality of Lake Dilolo as forming a sort of parti- 

 tion in the central valley, but it is not formed by outcropping rocks, as one 

 may travel a month beyond Shinte's without seeing a stone ; but in proceeding 

 south of Ngami, the farther we go the greater has been the filling up by 

 eruptive traps. The 25th parallel of latitude divides a part of the valley, 

 containing 1000 feet more filling up than that north of Kolobeng; and, strangely 

 enough, the only instance of a large transported boulder occurs just at the 

 edge of the more hollow part. The plains to the south of that are elevated 

 perhaps 5000 feet above the level of the sea. But the erupted rocks, as that 

 on which Kuruman stands, have brought up fragments of the very old bottom 

 rocks in their substance. 



"As I am not aware that the late Dr. Buckland made any public use of 

 a paper which I sent to him in 1843, on the gradual desiccation of the 

 Bechuana country, it may not be improper to mention, in support of the actual 

 drying up of all the rivers which have a westerly course, that I had pointed 



