FLOODED VAI^EYS. 315. 



In the afternoon of this day we came to a valley about 

 a mile wide, filled with clear fast-flowing water. The 

 men on foot were chin-deep in crossing, and we three on 

 oxback got wet to the middle, the weight on the animals 

 preventing them from swimming. A thunder-shower 

 descending, completed the partial drenching of the plain, 

 and gave a cold uncomfortable ' ' packing in a wet blanket '* 

 that night. Next day we found another flooded valley 

 about half a mile wide, with a small and now deep rivulet 

 in its middle, flowing rapidly to the S.S.E. or towards the 

 Kasai. The middle part of this flood, being the bed of 

 what at other times is the rivulet, was so rapid that we 

 crossed by holding on to the oxen, and the current soon 

 dashed them to the opposite bank ; we then jumped off, 

 and, the oxen being relieved of their burdens, we could 

 pull them on to the shallower part. The rest of the valley 

 was thigh-deep and boggy, but holding on by the belt 

 which fastened the blanket to the ox, we each floundered 

 through the nasty slough as well as we could. These 

 boggy parts, lying parallel to the stream, were the most 

 extensive we had come to — those mentioned already were 

 mere circumscribed patches, these stretched for miles 

 along each bank ; but even here, though the rapidity of 

 the current was very considerable, the thick sward of 

 grass was " laid " flat along the sides of the stream, and 

 the soil was not abraded so much as to discolour the flood. 

 When we came to the opposite side of this valley, some 

 pieces of the ferruginous conglomerate, which forms the 

 capping to all other rocks in a large district around and 

 north of this, cropped out, and the oxen bit at them as 

 if surprised by the appearance of stone as much as we 

 were ; or it may have contained some mineral of which 

 they stood in need. We had not met with a stone since 

 leaving Shinte's. The country is covered with deep 

 alluvial soil of a dark colour and very fertile. 



In the afternoon we came to another stream, huana 

 Loke (or child of I/)ke) with a bridge over it. The men 

 had to swim off to each end of the bridge, and when on it 

 were breast-deep ; some preferred holding on by the tails 

 of the oxen the whole way across. I intended to do this 

 too, but, riding to the deep part, before I could dismount 

 and seize the helm the ox dashed off with his companions,, 

 and his body sank so deep, that I failed in my attempt 

 even to catch the blanket belt, and if I pulled the bridle, 



