246 NAVIGATION OF THE I<EEAMBYE. 



children were between seven and eight years of age, and 

 unable to walk fast in a hot sun. 



Leaving Mosantu to pursue his course, we shall take 

 but one glance down the river, which we are now about to 

 leave, for it comes at this point, from the eastward, and 

 our course is to be directed to the north-west, as we mean 

 to go to Loanda in Angola. From the confluence, where 

 we now are, down to Mosioatunya, there are many long 

 reaches, where a vessel equal to the Thames steamers 

 plying between the bridges could run as freely as they do 

 ■on the Thames. It is often, even here, as broad as that 

 river at London Bridge, but, without accurate measure- 

 ment of the depth, one could not say which contained 

 most water. There are, however, many and serious 

 obstacles to a continued navigation for hundreds of miles 

 at a stretch. About ten miles below the confluence of 

 the Loeti, for instance, there are many large sandbanks in 

 the stream ; then you have a hundred miles to the river 

 Simdh, where a Thames steamer could ply at all times of 

 the year ; but, again, the space between Simah and 

 Katima-molelo has five or six rapids with cataracts, one 

 of which, Gonye, could not be passed at any time without 

 portage. Between these rapids there are reaches of still, 

 deep water, of several miles in length. Beyond Katima- 

 molelo to the confluence of the Chobe, you have nearly a 

 hundred miles again, of a river capable of being navigated 

 in the same way as in the Barotse valley. 



Now, I do not say that this part of the river presents a 

 very inviting prospect for extemporaneous European 

 enterprise ; but when we have a pathway which requires 

 only the formation of portages to make it equal to our 

 canals for hundreds of miles, where the philosophers sup- 

 posed there was nought but an extensive sandy desert, 

 we must confess that the future partakes at least of the 

 elements of hope. My deliberate conviction was and is, 

 that the part of the country indicated is as capable of 

 supporting millions of inhabitants as it is of its thousands. 

 The grass of the Barotse valley, for instance, is such a 

 densely matted mass that, when " laid," the stalks bear 

 each other up, so that one feels as if walking on the 

 sheaves of a hay-stack, and the leches nestle under it to 

 bring forth their young. The soil which produces this, if 

 placed under the plough, instead of being mere pasturage, 

 would yield grain sufhcient to feed vast multitudes. 



