The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

6 SOUTH AND EAST AFEICA.The limestone clifis are in many places pierced by deep caverns, where arufound narrow and hitherto unfathomed wells, which have given rise to numerousnative legends. Thermal springs occur at various points of the territory ; but novolcanic rocks have been found, except in the northern districts, and even here theeruptive forces appear to have been limited to a few outbursts of basaltic lavas.Ladislas Magyar speaks of a volcano, but without stating whether he visited ithimself, and there is every reason to believe that he was deceived by false reports,possibly even by the romantic but untrustworthy descrijjtions of the travellerJ. B. Douville.* This active volcano, known as the Mulondo-Zambi, or " DemonMountain," was reported to lie in the Libollo country some 30 miles to the southof the Cuanza. From the highest crater, overlooking all the surrounding crests,flames and smoke emitting a strong suljjhurous odour were said to be ejected atintervals of three or four hours. The natives never venture to approach thisburning mountain, which they suppose to be inhabited by the spirits of theirancestors. But all these reported eruptions will probably sooner or later beexplained by some meteorological phenomena, like those of the pretended Otumbivolcano in the Gaboon territorJ^River Basins.Limited eastwards by the course of the Kwango, the Angola region is traversedby numerous streams, which either flow through deep gorges acrossone or moreof the outer terraces of the plateau, or else, like the Cuanza and the Cunene, forcetheir way seawards through the whole breadth of the intervening uplands. Inthe northern section of the territory, where the annual rainfall is relativelyheavier than in the south, every valley has its perennial stream, although theserivers are prevented by the disposition of the rugged surface from uniting in onelarge fluvial system. A considerable number of the streams however flow, notdirectly seawards, but either to the east in the direction of the Kwango, or northwardsthrough the Kwilu, Lu-fu and Mposo to the Congo. Those which, like theLelunda, Mbrish, and Loje, reach the Atlantic directly, are disposed in parallelvalleys in the direction from east to west.But their mouths are nearly all closedto shipping by impassable bars, so that they are accessible only to small flatbottomedcraft.The Mbrish, which escapes from the Zombo highlands to the east of San-(Salvador, develops a series of cascades, the first of which has a fall of 150 feet, andthe whole chain of rapids a total incline of 430 feet. The Dand(^ and Bengo,however, being navigable above their bars, present certain advantages as highwaysof commerce in the interior, and their shady banks are lined with plantations.But the chief river in Angola, and one of the most copious of the secondarywatercourses in the whole of Africa, is the Cuanza, whose valley forms the Atlanticsection of the transverse depression which is continued through the Zambese basinsouth-eastwards to the Indian Ocean.The chief headstreams of the Cuanza have* " Voyage au Cong-o et dans riuterieur de I'Afrique ecxiiinoxiale."