3 86 APPROACHING TETE. 



-which are met with on this side of the eastern ridge, may 

 Indicate that the sea in former times rolled its waves 

 -along its flanks. Many of the hills between the Kafue 

 and loangwa have their sides of the form seen in mud 

 "banks left by the tide. The pot-holes appear most 

 abundant on low grey sandstone ridges here ; and as the 

 -shingle is composed of the same rocks as the hills west 

 of Zumbo, it looks as if a current had dashed along from 

 the south-east m the line in which the pot-holes now 

 appear ; and if the current was deflected, by those hills, 

 towards the Maravi country, north of Tete, it may have 

 "hollowed the rounded water-worn caverns, in which these 

 people store their corn, and also hide themselves from 

 their enemies. I could detect no terraces on the land, 

 but, if I am right in my supposition, the form of this part 

 of the continent must once have resembled the curves 

 or indentations seen on the southern extremity of the 

 American continent. In the indentation to the S.K., S., 

 S.W., and W. of this, he the principal gold-washings ; and 

 the line of the current, supposing it to have struck against 

 the hills of Mburuma, shows the washings in the N. and 

 N.E. of Tete. 



We were tolerably successful in avoiding the villages, 

 and slept one night on the flanks of the hill Zimika, where 

 a great number of deep pot-holes afforded an abundant 

 supply of good rain-water. Here, for the first time, we 

 saw hills with bare, smooth, rocky tops, and we crossed 

 over broad dykes of gneiss and syenitic porphyry : the 

 directions in which they lay were N. and S. As we were 

 tiow near to Tete, we were congratulating ourselves on 

 having avoided those who would only have plagued us ; 

 out next morning some men saw us, and ran off to inform 

 the neighbouring villages of our passing. A party im- 

 mediately pursued us, and, as they knew we were within 

 call of Katolosa (Monomotapa), they threatened to send 

 information to that chief of our offence, in passing through 

 the country without leave. We were obliged to give 

 them two small tusks, for, had they told Katoldsa of our 

 supposed offence, we should in all probability have lost 

 the whole. We then went through a very rough stony 

 country without any path. Being pretty well tired out 

 in the evening of the 2nd of March, I remained at about 

 eight miles distance from Tete, Tette, or Nyungwe. My 

 men asked me to go on ; I felt too fatigued to proceed, 



