492 ANCIENT LAKES. 



in order to " eat him up ; " but his usual success followed 

 him, and, dispersing them, the Makololo obtained so 

 many cattle, that they could not take any note of the 

 herds of sheep and goats. The tsetse has been brought 

 by buffaloes into some districts where formerly cattle 

 abounded. This obliged us to travel the first few stages 

 by night. We could not well detect the nature of the 

 country in the dim moonlight ; the path, however, seemed 

 to lead along the high bank of what may have been 

 the ancient bed of the Zambesi, before the fissure was 

 made. The Lekone now winds in it, in an opposite 

 direction to that in which the ancient river must have 

 flowed. 



Both the Lekone and Unguesi flow back towards the 

 centre of the country, and in an opposite direction to 

 that of the main stream. It was plain, then, that we 

 were ascending, the further we went eastward. The 

 level of the lower portion of the Lekone is about 200 feet 

 above that of the Zambesi at the falls, and considerably 

 more than the altitude of Linyanti ; consequently, when 

 the river flowed along this ancient bed, instead of through 

 the rent, the whole country between this, and the ridge 

 beyond Libebe westwards, Lake Ngami and the Zouga 

 southwards, and eastwards beyond Nchokotsa, was one 

 large fresh- water lake. There is abundant evidence of 

 the existence and extent of this vast lake in the longitudes 

 indicated, and stretching from 17 ° to 21 ° S. latitude. The 

 whole of this space is paved with a bed of tufa, more or 

 less soft, according as it is covered with soil, or left exposed 

 to atmospheric influences. Wherever ant-eaters make 

 deep holes in this ancient bottom, fresh-water shells are 

 thrown out, identical with those now existing, in the 

 Lake Ngami and the Zambesi. The Barotse valley was 

 another lake of a similar nature, and one existed beyond 

 Masiko, and a fourth near the Orange River. The whole 

 of these lakes were let out by means of cracks or fissures 

 made in the subtending sides, by the upheaval of the 

 country. The fissure made at the Victoria Falls let out 

 the water of this great valley, and left a small patch in 

 what was probably its deepest portion, and is now called 

 Lake Ngami. The Falls of Gonye furnished an outlet 

 to the lake of the Barotse valley, and so of the other great 

 lakes of remote times. The Congo also finds its way 

 to the sea through a narrow fissure, and so does the Orange 



