Chap. XXVI. 
ANCIENT LAKES. 
527 
very beautiful, and was once well peopled with Batoka, who 
possessed enormous herds of cattle. When Sebituane came in 
former times, with his small but warlike party of Makololo, to this 
spot, a general rising took place of the Batoka through the whole 
country, in order to “ eat him upbut liis usual success fol¬ 
lowed 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 obhged 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 liigh bank of what may have been the 
ancient bed of the Zambesi, before the fissure was made. The 
Lekone now winds in it, m 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 du’ection 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; con¬ 
sequently, when the river flowed along this ancient bed, instead 
of through the rent, the whole country between tliis, 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 exist¬ 
ence and extent of this vast lake in the longitudes indicated, 
and stretching from 17° to 21° S. latitude. The whole of tliis 
space is paved with a bed of tufa, more or less soft, accorduig 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 throTO 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 be¬ 
yond Masiko, and a fourth near the Orange Kiver. 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 
