548 
WHITE MOUNTAIN—THE MOZIBIA. Chap. XXVII. 
To the south, and a little east of tliis, stands the hill Taha Chen, 
or Wliite Mountain,” from a mass of wliite rock, probably dolo¬ 
mite, on its top. But none of the hills are of any great altitude. 
Wlien I heard tliis mountain described at Linyanti, I thought the 
glistening substance might be snow, and my informants were so loud 
in their assertions of its exceeding great altitude, that I was startled 
with the idea; but I had quite forgotten that I was speaking 
with men who had been accustomed to plains, and Imew notliing 
of very high mountains. When I inquired what the white sub¬ 
stance was, they at once replied it was a kind of rock. I expected 
to have come nearer to it, and would have ascended it; but we 
were led to go to the north-east. Yet I doubt not that the native 
testimony of its being stone, is true. The distant ranges of hills 
which line the banks of the Zambesi on the south-east, and land¬ 
scapes which permit the eye to range over twenty or thirty 
miles at a time, with short grass under our feet, were especially 
refresliing sights to those who had travelled for months together, 
over the confined views of the fiat forest, and among the tangled 
rank herbage of the great valley. 
The Mozuma, or river of Dila, was the first watercourse which 
indicated that we were now on the slopes towards the eastern coast. 
It contained no fiowmg water, but revealed in its banks what 
gave me great pleasure at the time; pieces of lignite, possibly 
indicating the existence of a mineral, namely, coal, the want of 
which in the central country I had always deplored. Again and 
again we came to the ruins of large towns, containing the only 
hieroglyphics of this country, worn millstones, with the round ball 
of quartz with which the grinding was effected. Great numbers 
of these balls were lying about, showing that the depopulation had 
been the result of war, for, had the people removed in peace, they 
would have taken the balls with them. ' 
At the river of Dila, we saw the spot where Sebituane lived, 
and Sekwebu pointed out the heaps of bones of cattle, which 
the Makololo had been obhged to slaughter, after performing 
a march with great herds captured from the Batoka, tlmough 
a patch of the fatal tsetse. When Sebituane saw the symptoms 
of the poison, he gave orders to his people to eat the cattle. He 
still had vast numbers; and when the Matebele, crossing the 
Zambesi opposite tliis part, came to attack liim, he mvited the 
