The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-03-21
NORTHERN RHODESIA.
A Vast and Beautiful Region North of
the Zambesi.

A Vast and Beautiful Region North OF
the Zambesi.
Mr.. Walker, a hunter of the first rank
in Rhodesia, has been telling repre-
sentative of 1.-THE Buluwayo Chronicle
about the wonderful stretch of territory
north of the Zambesi. This hunter
writes the pressman, is quiet spoken
and undenonstrative, absolutely with
out braggadocio He relates how in the
darkness he had killed a lion at close
quarters pretty much as other men
would describe how they knocked over
a, hare. Goodness and determination,
with capacity for quick decision anu
action, underlie his unassuming de-
meanor 1t is in his sitting room
adorned with many trophies of the
chase, that Mr. Walker tells of the vast
region north of the big waterway
ION the other side" he says, lis
beautiful country, and the plateau is
much healthier than here. Its average
height is five thousand feet or so, The
soil is most fertile, and it is we'll water
| ed everywhere The Monte plateau,
between the Zambesi and the kafu1, Is
not so healthy, being, for one thing,
| lower. The soil, water and grass are OF
the best, and altogether it is the finest
ranching and agricultural land / have
ever seen in any part o: South Africa.
In appearance it is not at all like Mata-
beIeIand. 1t is what one would call
semi-open country. AS to the natives,
you would not wish for better class
They are willing to do anything you
| ask them to do, and / never had the
slightest trouble with them. / went UP
there for the first time three years ago,
| and have been there twice again
went in for trading and hunting, but
my chief idea vast to have a look at
the country with a view to settling
there. The Kafui Valley is a splendid
piece Of country, long and wide, ana
soil of the best-something like what |
suppose the Nile Valley is. 1t is mum
dated every wet season, but believe
that in spite Of this it is not an I'M
healthy place. There are English mis-
sionaries, with their wives and chill
dren, living right on the banks of the
river, and they are not troubled with
fever The months during which it is
least healthy are March and April
ACROSS ltlb Adlul LllClt - q W. = 10 -
country again. The only people who
have been in that country are traders
and the police There is any amount
of game all over the place-all the
game you get in this country, and more
besides. There are pookoo, lechWe
situtanga, lichtenstein. See. here are
the skins of some of them. Strange
enough. you don't get either the giraffe
or ostrich there. You don't get them
further north till somewhere about
Lake Tanganyika, and, of course, you
get them further south. The modern
giraffe, by the way, is Inherently
marked, and generally has three horns
/ should certainly say that the climate
there is healthier than this. In the hot
test month-October- not so hot as
it is here. There's always a delightful
" cool breeze blowing, which keeps
down the heat 1t works against the
heat automatically, as it were. The
breeze which is from east to west,
SPRINGS up about sunrise and blows con-
tinually till sunset. The nights them
selves are so cool that even in the hot
test part of the year you want two
blankets. The mere fact that the
nights are invariably cool must make
a great difference in the health of the
place, You see the corn and the grass
on the plateau. I have seen kaffr corn
there Is to 90 feet high. Down in the
valleys again a short sweet grass grows
only six inches high. Take the best
parts Of the Transvaal and Free state
I know them well-a farmer has to
bring his stock down from the high to
the low veldt, and go back again to the
high veldt in the summer time. But on
the plateau man can stay there all the
vear round. None of the traders are
settled there. There are only the po-
lice and a few missionaries. We gener-
aI1v leave here in April and May and
get back in October or November.
There's a road starting from the banks
of the Zambesi below the junction of
the Gwaai. You get your wagons over
in this way Two hogsheads are tied
underneath the wagon, the wheels fas-
tened TO the body of the wagon, the dis
SELDOM taken out, and then a dugout
goes on each side of the wagon. Some
of the niggers hold to ropes and the
others paddle. Tt takes only about ten
minutes if you do the thing smartly,
as the river is only about two hundred
wards wide there. Two hogsheads were
left there for the benefit Of people cross \
ing, These, however have become ant
eaten and any one going up now should
take hogsheads with him. It's not very
far from here-about 260 miles to the |
Zambesi and another fifty to the |
plateau. The Batoko natives, who in |
habit this plateau, are not warlike. |
They have been damned in between the |
Barotse and the Matabele having been
made the slaves of both. The only peo- |
DIE up there who would have not been
are the Observation-Disclosures" -
From the London Globe
Accounted Or-Judge-Couldn't you
have orroeted +bic man without C1uh-