CENTRA L A FRIG A N RI VERS. 243 



be rendered accessible to British commerce. I wish him to point out, on the 

 diagram made for this occasion by Mr Arrowsmith, the lines of those ridges 

 which he describes as perfect sanatoria or healthy districts, distinguished from 

 the great humid or marshy region in the interior, and as being equally dis- 

 tinguished from the deltas on the coast, in which the settlements of Europeans 

 have hitherto been made. It is important to observe that large tracts of this 

 country are occupied by coal-fields, of which we have had the first knowledge 

 from our distinguished traveller. There are indications throughout the 

 flanking ranges, of great disturbance of the strata, by the intrusion of igneous 

 rocks which have very much metamorphosed them. The strata upon the two 

 sides of Africa, dip inwards, and the great interior region thus forms an 

 elevated plateau arranged in basin-shape. This vast basin is occupied by 

 calcareous tufa, the organic remains in which seem to indicate that at a 

 period not remote in the history of the globe, this great marshy region has 

 been desiccated, leaving in these broad plateaus of calcareous tufa, the 

 remains of lacustrine and land animals, which are still living in the country. 

 I hold in my hand a geological map of the Cape territory as prepared by Mr. 

 Bain, which, coupled with the discovery of Lake Ngami, led me to offer to 

 you that speculation on the probable physical condition of the interior of 

 Africa which the observations of Dr. Livingstone have confirmed. 



De. Livingstone then rose, and, pointing to the diagram of Africa, said : 

 The country south 20° is comparatively arid ; there are few rivers in it, and 

 what water the natives get, is chiefly from wells. But north of 20°, we find a 

 totally different country, wonderfully well watered, and very unlike what 

 people imagine Central Africa to be. It is covered by a network of waters, 

 which are faintly put down in the map, and chiefly from native information. 

 The reason why we have trusted to native information in this case, is this : 

 when Mr. Oswell and I went up to the Chobe in 1851, we employed the 

 natives to draw a part of the Zambesi in the centre of the country, which had 

 hitherto been unknown to Europeans. They drew it so well, that although I 

 have since sailed up and down the river several times, and have taken obser- 

 vations all along, I have very little to add to that native map. The natives 

 show on their maps that you can go up one river and get into another. You 

 can go up the Kama, for instance, and get into another, the river of the 

 Banyenko. You can go up the Simah and get into the Chobe, and can come 

 down into the Zambesi, or Leeambye. You can go up the river Teoge, and 

 round again by the Tzo to Lake Ngami. If you go up the Loi, you can get 

 into the Kafue. And they declare that if you go up the Kafue in a canoe, 

 you can get as far as the point where that river divides from the Loangua. 

 All these rivers are deep and large, and never dry up as the South African 

 rivers do. Some will say that the natives always tell you that one river 

 comes out of another. Yes, if you do not understand the language you may 



