Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1861-05-10

OF sending overland by the elephant hunters,
SO open the letter written at Sesheke to in.
sert some further particulars. The river was
so low we could easily see the bottom of one
halt of the assure which forms Victoria Falls !;
and, indeed, people could wade from the north
bank to my garden island, to form stockade
for fresh seeds. The depth is'nOt 100 feet, but
80 teet-probably few feet more as the
weight attached to the line rested on slope
near the bottom. The breadth from bank to
bank is not 1000 yards, as l conjectured in
1855, but between one statute and one geo.
graphical mile-we say |, 1850 yards, to assist
the memory, but it is a little more, yet not
quite 1000 yards. The lips of the crack at
Garden Island may be more than eighty feet,
rs we could not throw q stone across, but tue
seXtant gave that. Now come to the other or
southeastern side of the crack, and the fissure,
which from the upper bed looks like the letter
L., is prolonged in most remarkable zigzay
manner
"The water, after leaping sheer down three
hundred and ten feet, is collected from both
ends at the upright part of the letter as the
escape, and then flows away on the Zigzag
part. The promontories formed thereby are
fiat at the top, and of the same level as the
bed Of the river above the Falls. The base
of the first on the right is only four hundred
PAGES from the fall tiSsure, and that on the left
about one hundred and fifty. Their sides are
as perpendicular as the Fall, and you can walk
along among the tress, and by a few steps see
the river some three hundred feet below, jam
med in space of some twenty or thirty yards,
and OF deep green color. AS a whole the
Victoria Falls are the most wonderful in the acOrd
Even now at extreme low water, or when it is
two feet lower than we ever saw it, there are
eight hundred feet of water falling on the
right of Garden Island And the columns of
vapor, with the glorious rainbow, are a sight
worth seeing. A tall called Momba or Mo.
amba, below this, is interesting, chiefly be-
cause you look down it from height of some
five hundred feet. 1t is really nothing after
Mosioatunya.
'We visited the river twice on our way
down to Sinamanes, and found it in a very
deep crack. The boiling point gives 1000 of
descent from the falls to Sinamanes. Mr..
Moffat informs me that all the rivers in Mosel-
ekatze country run northwest or north-north-
west They enter the Zambosi above Sinam-
anes, and above a remarkable mountain, which
possibly was the dam that shut in the waters
of the ancient lake, before Mosoatunya was
made. They are therefore not Uhere, from oral
Information, they haze been put in the map The
whole country below and around the falls has
been the scene of comparatively recent volcan-
ic operations. Some parts look as recent as
Alden; some are of trothy lava and all present
burnt appearance.
GA conjecture that the calcareous tupa of
Sesheke valley was emitted from a volcano
like that which covered the cities of POmpeii
and Hercuaneum does not account for the
roots OF reeds therein, nor the bidental sauri
ans of the ancient lakes and question if
volcano ever threw mud over 200 miles square
as this lake has done. Wherever we have
had ignedus action in this country, we have
had large quantities of tupa bearing water af
ter it. | cannot account for the enormous
quantity of gravel and shingle below the Falls.
The bed of the river and country generally
are covered with it to a considerable depth.
There is none above the Falls and none below
Chicova."
AFRICAN RIVERS.
eve purchased canoes and dropped down
stream in order'to examine all at low water.
KansAlo is no difficulty. Kariba, few miles
below it, is basaltic dyke, stretched across
the stream, but it has a wide opening in it,
dangerous for canoes, the gunwales of which
were only six inches above the water AT
Vnrnmas there is rapid of about one hundred
yards III length, which runs at six Knots an
hour. This is the most rapid part we have
seen IN the whole river We measured the
most rapid part below Chicova on our way up,
ard found it to be under four knots, but a fall
OF about fifteen feet before our return develop.
ed several dangerous rapids and even extracts,
which were quite smooth when we passed
Chicova. There seemed from the shore to be
trap dyke across the stream, like Kariba but
it had two openings We passed through
either the one or the other without observing
the dyke; but we saw large seam of fine
coal in the bank. There is another in the
bank at Manyerire Hill, and besides seeing
fragments of the minerals in many rivuets on
both banks, we verified the existence of the
coal field, not to Jumbo only, as l formerly
pointed out, but to nearly to Snamanes, below
Victoria Falls. The only real difficulty in the
river is MUrumbua, and that could be passed
in full flood, for rise of eighty feet must
emootl II ovarD