Chap. XXVI. 
DEAINAGE OF THE GKEAT VALLEY. 
529 
acquaintance with the river-system, certainly would convey the im¬ 
pression. None of the rivers in the valley of the Leeambye have 
slopes down to their beds. Indeed, many parts are much Like 
the Thames at the Isle of Dogs, only the Leeambye has to rise 
twenty or thirty feet before it can overflow some of its meadows. 
The rivers have each a bed of low water; a simple furrow cut 
sharply out of the calcareous tufa, which lined the channel of 
the ancient lake; and another of inundation. When the beds of 
inundation are filled, they assume the appearance of chains of 
lakes. Wlien the Clyde fills the holms haughs ”) above Both- 
weU Bridge and retires again into its channel, it resembles the river 
we are speaking of, only here, there are no high lands sloping 
down towards the bed of inundation, for the greater part of the 
region is not elevated fifty feet above them. Even the rocky 
banks of the Leeambye below Gonye, and the ridges bounding 
the Barotse valley, are not more than two or three himdred feet 
in altitude over the general dead level. Many of the rivers are 
very tortuous in then- course, the Chobe and Simah particularly 
so; and if we may receive the testimony of the natives, they 
form what anatomists call anastamosis, or a network of rivers. 
Thus, for instance, they assured me that, if they go up the Simah 
in a canoe, they can enter the Chobe and descend that river to 
the Leeambye; or they may go up the Kama and come down 
the Simah. And so in the case of the Kafue. It is reputed to 
be connected in this way with the Leeambye in the north, and to 
part with the Loangwa; and the Makololo went from the one, 
into the other, in canoes. And even though the interlacing may 
not be quite to the extent beheved by the natives, the country is 
so level and the rivers so tortuous, that I see no improbability 
in the conclusion, that here is a network of waters of a very 
pecuHar natm^e. The reason why I am disposed to place a certain 
amount of confidence in the native reports is this,-—when Mr. 
OsweU and I discovered the Zambesi in the centre of the con¬ 
tinent in 1851, being unable to ascend it at the time ourselves, 
we employed the natives to draw a map embodying their ideas of 
that river. We then sent the native map home with the same’ 
view that I now mention their ideas of the river system—namely, 
in order to be an aid to others in farther investigations. When I 
was able to ascend the Leeambye to 14° south, and subsequently 
2 M 
