Southwest of Timbuctoo the river divides itself into many creeks and branches. Here its banks are low and marshy at all times. During the rainy season they are generally overflowed.
In this section of country rice, tobacco, wheat, and barley are raised.
The river now flows on past the town of Burrum. Here it curves to the southeast and makes what is called the Knee of Burrum.
Just below Burrum the Niger does not present much the appearance of the great stream that the natives have, by various names, designated as The River.
Indeed, it presents far from an imposing sight, as it moves slowly, sluggishly along its broad, marshy valley bed. This valley bed is inclosed either by rocky ridges or by high dunes. These dunes are very probably mounds of mud and sand, brought down by the river in the course of ages, and heaped up along its banks.
The broad, marshy valley is thickly studded with water reeds and sedges.
Its whole surface is, in fact, cut up into innumerable small creeks and streams.
At the ferry of Burri the Niger attains a breadth of eight or nine hundred yards. At this point the valley is about two miles broad. The land is fertile, carefully cultivated, and well populated.
Somewhat farther south the river pa.s.ses through two towns. At this point in its course its bed becomes rocky, and navigation is, in consequence, dangerous.
At the town of Say the bed of the Niger becomes very much narrowed from its previous breadth of from twenty-five hundred to three thousand paces. At this point the bed of the stream is inclosed by rocky banks, and the current flows on at the rate of three miles an hour, with an average width of but one thousand paces.
The most beautiful and picturesque scenery on the Niger is in the section where it flows around the eastern shoulder of the so-called Kong Mountains. In solemn majesty these mighty peaks look from a height of from two thousand to three thousand feet upon the waters at their base.
The delta of the Niger may be described as a dense mangrove forest. This is cut up into beautiful islands by means of the many streams. It is said that there are upwards of twenty of these streams into which the river divides.
The existence of the Niger was known in ancient times. Accounts had been brought by travelers, who, coming from the southern sh.o.r.es of the Mediterranean, crossed the Great Desert, and discovered the course of a great river flowing towards the rising sun.
Herodotus, a famous Greek historian, born nearly five hundred years before Christ, supposed it to be a branch of the Egyptian Nile. Pliny, a famous ancient writer, born early in the first century after Christ, speaks of the Nigris of Ethiopia. He, also, believed that the river flowed into the river Nile.
Many were the attempts to gain definite knowledge of the river. Just before the middle of the present century the English government sent out an expedition. The result of the expedition proved that the river was navigable from Boussa to the sea.
This was costly information, for which an enormous price was paid; for many human lives were the forfeit. The enervating character and unhealthfulness of the climate of the region explored proved most disastrous to the members of the expedition. Many subsequent expeditions ended with similar results.
About the middle of the present century Dr. Barth followed the river from Timbuctoo to Say.
Much of what is now known to the world with regard to the Niger is due to the explorations he made.
He has estimated the entire length of the river to be upwards of twenty-five hundred miles.
CHAPTER IX.
THE ZAMBESI, THE RIVER OF SOUTHEAST AFRICA.
The extensive region in Southeast Africa was described in the geographies of the middle ages under the name of the empire of Monomotapa. It is shown upon the old time maps as being dependent upon the river Zambese, or Zambere, for drainage.
The course of this river is, in the main, correctly designated upon these maps, and several large towns are shown as having a location upon its banks. A small lake is also indicated, not far from the actual position of Lake N"gami, whose real existence was not proved until within comparatively a few years.
This lake is now considered one of the most southern of inland waters which have any communication with the modern Zambesi River and the more eastern lakes.
On the old maps the Nya.s.sa and the more northern lakes, Victoria Nyanza and Tanganyika, are given with a good deal of accuracy.
We must believe, then, that those who compiled these early maps must have had some definite knowledge of these regions.
It is believed that they gained this knowledge from the Arabs. Various settlements were located along the eastern and southeastern coast of Africa, extending from the Red Sea to Sofala.
Strange to say, although the lower region of the Zambesi, for a distance of three hundred miles at least, has been in the hands of the Portuguese since the early part of the sixteenth century, yet it is only since the middle of the present century that we have succeeded in getting any accurate or scientific knowledge of the vast territory.
This knowledge we owe to the untiring exertion of such intrepid African explorers as Dr. Kirk, Charles Andersson, Dr. Livingstone, and others.
Upon Dr. Livingstone"s map the total length of the main stream, from the mouth to the point in the course where the Leeba River joins it, cannot be less than twelve hundred miles.
The Leeba River proceeds from Lake Dilolo, which is situated on the summit of the watershed which divides the rivers that run northwest into the Atlantic from those which run southeast into the Indian Ocean.
A curious fact is connected with Lake Dilolo; it appears to have two outlets, one to the north and one to the south. The northern outlet probably joins the system of lakes west of Tanganyika.
The river basin of the Zambesi has many features of interest. On the north it probably terminates with a portion of the river system of the Nile. On the west it is separated from the Orange River basin and the various rivers running through Ovampo Land into the Atlantic by a rather undefined watershed, which crosses the Kalahari Desert. On the northwest the main waters very likely have their rise in the near vicinity of the tributaries of the great Congo River.
A well-defined mountain range on the southeast separates the rivers which flow into the Zambesi from those which unite to form the Limpopo.
The Zambesi River retains this name from a point only a short distance above its mouth to the junction of the main stream with the Chobe.
By means of the Chobe the Zambesi is connected with the sluggish intermingling streams of the N"gami region. Flowing on after its junction with the Chobe, the river is known under another name, the Leambye.
Our most accurate knowledge of the river extends as far as its union with the Leeba. At this point it seems to make a sudden bend to the northeast and form a network of streams. These mingle with one another, and, far to the east, seem to form several other connections with the main stream, if we can believe the reports of the natives.
The portion of Central South Africa through which the Zambesi flows may be regarded as an extensive table-land, or plateau.
This vast table-land stands from three to four thousand feet above the level of the sea. On its outer edge it is fringed by a border of basaltic rocks.
The river cuts its way through the rocks of this region to form one of the most strikingly picturesque scenes upon the globe.
It was to this section of the river that Livingstone gave the name Victoria Falls. The natives gave it the odd name Mosiotunge. This may be translated to mean "Smoke sounds there," or "Smoke which sounds."
The falls of the Zambesi have been compared to those of Niagara. Charles Livingstone, a brother of Dr. Livingstone, considered those of the Zambesi more beautiful and more wonderful than those of Niagara.
The river in the vicinity of the falls is more than a mile in breadth.
It flows peacefully along its bed and plunges suddenly into a fissure three hundred feet deep, which lies directly in its course.
This fissure is scarcely two hundred feet wide. It is by no means an even opening in the rocks, but for several miles runs in and out in a series of zigzags, which are separated from each other by four vertical promontories of basaltic rock. These promontories are hardly as wide as the fissure. They are so narrow, that if we could stand on the center of one of them we could easily toss a stone into the chasm lying on either hand. It is not known accurately how far below the falls this chasm extends.
The height of the cataract has been estimated as twice that of Niagara.
In flood time the volume of water pouring over the falls is very probably much greater than that at Niagara.
Dr. Livingstone relates that, when he visited these falls, one of the first questions asked by a native warrior was, "Have you smoke that sounds in your country?"
[Ill.u.s.tration: "SMOKE-RESOUNDING" FALLS OF THE ZAMBESI.]