dr. Livingstone's researches. 431 
12° 8' South, and 22° 55' East long. It had 
assumed the same Easterly and Westerly course 
as the Leeambye. After crossing it, we were 
obliged to go due North, in consequence of the 
plains of Lobale, on our West, being flooded 
and impassable. It happened to be the rainy 
season, and never did twenty-four hours pass 
without frequent drenching showers. All the 
streams were swollen, so as to appear consider- 
able rivers; but as they were generally fur- 
nished with rustic bridges, we may infer their 
flow to be perennial. Several extensive plains 
were crossed, with the water standing more 
than a foot deep ; and broad valleys also, along 
which the water flowed fast towards the Lee- 
ba, deep enough to wet our blankets, which we 
used as pads on the oxen, instead of saddles. 
Both this, and the water in the rivers, was so 
clear, that, in using the bridges over the latter, 
though they were submerged breast deep, we 
could easily see the sticks on which to place 
our feet. This clearness of the water, which 
we observed in the Zonga, Chobe, and Leeam- 
bye, at the times of inundation, is the result of 
the rains falling on a mat of grass, so thick, as 
to prevent abrasion of the soil. As the tropi- 
cal rains cause the plains of Lobale to present 
a similar phenomenon, it may not be unreason- 
able to conclude, that the water of inundation 
