The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death, Volume II (of 2), 1869-1873: Continued By A Narrative Of His Last Moments And Sufferings, Obtained From His Faithful Servants Chuma And SusiLivingstone, David
History
The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death, Volume II (of 2), 1869-1873: Continued By A Narrative Of His Last Moments And Sufferings, Obtained From His Faithful Servants Chuma And Susi
Livingstone, David
Africa, Central -- Description and travel
The black basaltic mountains on the east of the Bamangwato, formerly
called the Bakaa, furnish further evidence of the igneous eruptions
being sub-aerial, for the basalt itself is columnar at many points, and
at other points the tops of the huge crystals appear in groups, and the
apices not flattened, as would have been the case had they been
developed under the enormous pressure of an ocean. A few miles on their
south a hot salt fountain boils forth and tells of interior heat.
Another, far to the south-east, and of fresh water, tells the same tale.
Subsequently to the period of gigantic volcanic action, the outflow of
fresh lime-water from the bowels of the earth seems to have been
extremely large. The land now so dry that one might wander in various
directions (especially westwards, to the Kalahari), and perish for lack
of the precious fluid as certainly as if he were in the interior of
Australia, was once bisected in all directions by flowing streams and
great rivers, whose course was mainly to the south. These river beds are
still called by the natives "_melapo_" in the south, but in the north
"_wadys_," both words meaning the same thing, "river beds in which no
water ever now flows." To feed these a vast number of gushing fountains
poured forth for ages a perennial supply. When the eye of the fountain
is seen it is an oval or oblong orifice, the lower portion distinctly
water worn, and there, by diminished size, showing that as ages elapsed
the smaller water supply had a manifestly lesser erosive power. In the
sides of the mountain Amhan, already mentioned, good specimens of these
water-worn orifices still exist, and are inhabited by swarms of bees,
whose hives are quite protected from robbers by the hardness of the
basaltic rocks. The points on which the streams of water fell are
hollowed by its action, and the space around which the water splashed is
covered by calcareous tufa, deposited there by the evaporation of the
sun.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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