Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa by David Livingstone (interesting books to read for teens TXT) 📖

we shot a full-grown cow, and found, as we had often done before, the flesh to be very much like pork. The height of this animal was 4 feet 10 inches, and from the point of the nose to the root of the tail 10 feet 6. They seem quarrelsome, for both males and females are found covered with scars, and young males are often killed by the elder ones: we met an instance of this near the falls.

We came to a great many little villages among the hills, as if the inhabitants had reason to hide themselves from the observation of their enemies.

While detained cutting up the hippopotamus, I ascended a hill called Mabue asula (stones smell badly), and, though not the highest in sight, it was certainly not 100 feet lower than the most elevated.

The boiling-point of water showed it to be about 900 feet above the river, which was of the level of Linyanti. These hills seemed to my men of prodigious altitude, for they had been accustomed to ant-hills only.

The mention of mountains that pierced the clouds made them draw in their breath and hold their hands to their mouths.

And when I told them that their previous description of Taba cheu had led me to expect something of the sort, I found that the idea of a cloud-capped mountain had never entered into their heads.

The mountains certainly look high, from having abrupt sides; but I had recognized the fact by the point of ebullition of water, that they are of a considerably lower altitude than the top of the ridge we had left. They constitute, in fact, a sort of low fringe on the outside of the eastern ridge, exactly as the (apparently) high mountains of Angola (Golungo Alto) form an outer low fringe to the western ridge.

I was much struck by the similarity of conformation and nature of the rocks on both sides of the continent; but there is a difference in the structure of the subtending ridges, as may be understood by the annexed ideal geological section.

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[The ASCII edition cannot include the drawing of the cross-section, but the comments are included in full. -- A. L., 1997.]

IDEAL SECTION ACROSS SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA, INTENDED TO SHOW THE ELEVATED VALLEY FORM OF THAT PORTION OF THE CONTINENT. -------------------------------------- WEST.

[Terrain] [Remarks]

Sea. CALCAREOUS TUFA.

TRAP. With modern shells, and similar to those now found in the sea adjacent, with strongly magnetic iron ore. MICA SCHIST. Dipping East. SANDSTONE (like that of East Africa). The rocks Pungo Andongo. of Pungo Andongo are a conglomerate of rounded shingle in Rocks 4000 feet. a matrix of sandstone, and stand on horizontal sandstone, on which fossil palms appear.

Fault.

RED SHALES CAPPED BY FERRUGINOUS CONGLOMERATE. Soft red shale or "keele".

G| 5000 feet.

R| Water boils

E| at 202 Deg.

A| On top, ferruginous conglomerate; below that, red shale, T| 4500 feet. with banks of gravel.

| Lake Dilolo.

C| TUFA AND TRAP. In Londa, the bottom of the valley E| 2500 feet. is formed of ferruginous conglomerate on the surface; N| Lake Ngami. hardened sandstone, with madrepore holes, T| banks of gravel, and occasionally trap; R| south of 12 Degrees, large patches of soft A| TUFA. calcareous tufa, with pebbles of jasper, L| agates, &c., lie on various horizontal traps, | amygdaloids with analami and mesotype, which is P| burst through by basaltic rocks forming hills, L| and showing that the bottom of the valley A| RADIATED ZEOLITE. consists of old silurian schists; T| there are also various granitic rocks E| cropping through the trap.

A|

U| BASALTIC ROCKS. Augitic porphyry and basalt, .| with tufa over it.

Place of Great Cataract.

MICA SCHIST. White mica schist dipping west, and gneiss.

5000 feet. Kalomo.

Water boils GRANITE. With black mica.

at 202 Deg.

MICA SCHIST. White mica schist and white marble.

Hill tops TRAP. Hot fountain; conical hills of igneous rocks, 4000 feet. containing much mica.

Bottoms 3500 feet.

MICA SCHIST. Pink marble dolomite, on hills of mica schist, of various colours, with trap, schorl in gneiss, kyanite or disthene gneissose mica in the schist.

1500 ft. COAL IN SANDSTONE. Specular and magnetic iron on various igneous rocks; finely laminated porphyry; granite; hot fountain.

Sandstone overlying coal; trap dykes; syenitic porphyry dykes; black vesicular trap, penetrating in thin veins the clay shale of the country, converting it into porcellanite, and partially crystallizing the coal. On this sandstone lie fossil palms, and coniferous trees converted into silica, as on a similar rock in Angola. COMPACT SILICEOUS SCHIST. IGNEOUS ROCKS. Trappean rocks, with hot fountain. CALCAREOUS TUFA. Arkose, or granitic grit, with modern shells covered by calcareous tufa.

Sea.

EAST.

The heights are given as an approximation obtained from observing the boiling point of water, they are drawn on a scale of 1/10 of an inch per 1000 feet in altitude. The section is necessarily exaggerated in longitude, as it was traversed in different latitudes, the western side being in 8d-12d, the eastern 15d-18d S.

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We can see from this hill five distinct ranges, of which Bolengo is the most westerly, and Komanga is the most easterly.

The second is named Sekonkamena, and the third Funze.

Very many conical hills appear among them, and they are generally covered with trees. On their tops we have beautiful white quartz rocks, and some have a capping of dolomite. On the west of the second range we have great masses of kyanite or disthene, and on the flanks of the third and fourth a great deal of specular iron ore which is magnetic, and containing a very large percentage of the metal. The sides of these ranges are generally very precipitous, and there are rivulets between which are not perennial. Many of the hills have been raised by granite, exactly like that of the Kalomo. Dikes of this granite may be seen thrusting up immense masses of mica schist and quartz or sandstone schist, and making the strata fold over them on each side, as clothes hung upon a line. The uppermost stratum is always dolomite or bright white quartz.

Semalembue intended that