166 Scientific Intelligence. 
tramp. The hippopotami had eaten all my trees, so henceforth we shall 
have war with them to the knife. They are good food, half beef and half 
pork, and lots of fat, that serves as butter. This is part of the casus belle. 
By the way, our good friend Professor Owen and the gastronomic com- 
mittee will stand very much in their own light if the she-giraffes die a 
natural death. If they praised the eland so, which we consider but so-so, 
a dinner off she-giraffe will leave them all lying on their backs. 
“ Our plan of returning is to pass Victoria Falls, and buy camels at 
Sinamanes; then drop down the stream, so as to be at the sea in November. 
This goes by an elephant-hunter, whom we met at the Falls, to Mosili- 
katze, and thence to Kuruman. 
‘“ We found Sekeletu labouring under a skin disease, believed to be 
leprosy, the effect, of course, of witchcraft; and several headmen had 
been executed for the alleged crime. Many influential men had died of 
fever, and the tribe is altogether in a shaky condition. They are anxious 
generally to go to the highlands, and were much disappointed at my not 
bringing Mrs L ; for all believe that she, or any member of Mr 
Moffat’s family, would be a protector to them against Mosilikatze. Dur- 
ing our month’s sojourn here, we have been treated to tea, American bis- 
cuits, and preserved fruits daily. We have tried to cure Sekeletu’s com- 
plaint, and he is recovering; but time and patience are required for the 
cure. It is probably an obstinate skin disease, and not leprosy. 
‘* But I must tell you that we were saddened by the loss of a party 
of London missionaries, as we suppose by fever, at Linyanti; six out 
of nine Europeans perished in three months. By a remedy first tried 
on my own children at Lake Ngami in 1850, we, at a lower and more un- 
healthy part of the Zambesi, cured severe cases of the complaint in Euro- 
peans so quickly that our march was rarely interrupted more than a day 
or two; a man stricken prostrate was sometimes able to resume his march 
on foot a day after the operation of the remedy, and this while those good 
people were helplessly perishing. The proper medicines, too, for its com- 
position were found by me in the waggon, which has been carefully 
guarded for seven years, within a few hundred yards of their grave. I 
think it is mentioned near the end of the ‘‘ Missionary Travels” which 
you made me write; but I am now anxious that it becomes generally 
known, and there is great difficulty in the matter. Medicines so often 
deceive people ; panaceas in one hand, and nonentities in another. I 
have, however, never failed to cure during ten years.—I am,” &c. 
“Davin Livinestons.”’ 
“ Trtz, Nov. 26, 1860. 
‘¢ My pear Sir Roprricx,— We unfortunately missed the opportunity 
of sending overland by the elephant hunters, so I open the letter written 
at Sesheke to insert some further particulars. The river was so low we. 
could easily see the bottom of one-half of the fissure which forms Victoria 
Falls ; and, indeed, people could wade from the north bank to my Garden 
Island, to form a stockade for fresh seeds. The depth is not 100 feet, 
but 310 feet—probably a few feet more, as the weight attached to the 
line rested on a slope near the bottom. The breadth from bank to bank 
is not 1000 yards, as I conjectured in 1855, but between one statute and 
one geographical mile—we say 1860 to assist the memory, but it is a little 
more, yet not quite 2000 yards. The lips of the crack at Garden Island 
may be more than 80 feet, as we could not throw a stone across, but the 
sextant gave that. Now, come to the other, or south-eastern side of the 
crack, and the fissure, which from the upper bed looks like the letter L, 
is prolonged in a most remarkable zigzag manner. The water, after leaping 
sheer down 310 feet, is collected from both ends to the upright part of the 
letter as the escape, and then flows away on the zigzag part. The promonto- 
