508 CONFORMATION OF COUNTRY. 



being white ; and their long soft hair covering their entire 

 bodies to the ground made them look like animals moving 

 along without feet." * 



It is impossible to say how much farther to the N. 

 these subtending ridges may stretch. There is reason to 

 believe that, though the same general form of country 

 obtains, they are not flanked by abrupt hills between the 

 latitude 12 S. and the equator. The inquiry is worthy 

 the attention of travellers. As they are known to be 

 favourable to health, the Makololo, who have been nearly 

 all cut off by fevers in the valley, declaring that here they 

 never had a headache, they may even be recommended as 

 a sanatorium for those whose enterprise leads them into 

 Africa, either for the advancement of scientific knowledge, 

 or for the purposes of trade or benevolence. In the case 

 of the eastern ridge, we have water-carriage, with only 

 one short rapid as an obstruction, right up to its base ; and 

 if a quick passage can be effected during the healthy part of 

 the year, there would be no danger of loss of health during 

 a long stay on these high lands afterwards. How much 

 further do these high ridges extend ? The eastern one 

 seems to bend in considerably towards the great falls ; 

 and the strike of the rocks indicating that, further to the 

 N.N.E. than my investigations extend, it may not, at a 

 few degrees of latitude beyond, be more than 300 or 350 

 miles from the coast. They at least merit inquiry, for they 

 afford a prospect to Europeans, of situations superior in 

 point of salubrity to any of those on the coast ; and so on 

 the western side of the continent ; for it is a fact that many 

 parts in the interior of Angola, which were formerly 

 thought to be unhealthy on account of their distance 

 inland, have been found, as population advanced, to be 

 the most healthy spots in the country. Did the great 

 Niger expedition turn back when near such a desirable 

 position for its stricken and prostrate members ? 



The distances from top to top of the ridges may be 

 about io° of longitude, or 600 geographical miles. I 

 cannot hear of a hill on either ridge, and there are scarcely 

 any in the space enclosed by them. The Monakadze is 

 the highest, but that is not more than a thousand feet 

 above the flat valley. On account of this want of hills in 



* Moffat's "Visit to Mosilikatse," — Royal Geog. Soc. Journal, 

 vol. xxvi., p. 96. 



