The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

AXGOLAN EIYEES. 7their sources beyond the region directlj' subject to Portuguese rule, interminglingtheir flood waters with those of the Zambese and of the Ku-Bango on a plateauwhich has a mean altitude of not less than 5,500 feet. The farthest source ofthe mainstream is the little Lake Mussombo, some 720 miles from the coast, bythe windings of the fluvial valley. From this point the Cuanza describes a vastsemicircle, flowing at first towards the north-east and then to the north, afterwhich it sweeps round to the north-west and west, finally trending to the southwestin its last meander seawards. More than half of its course lies to the east ofthe upland terraces and plateaux which form the backbone of Angola. By thedirection of its upper valley it seems inclined to become a tributary of the Congo,but on reaching the Ba-Songa territory, where it has already become a copiousstream, it curves round to the west, and forces its way over a long series of wildgorges, falls and rapids, through the intervening mountain barriers seawards.The Cambamb^ cataract, last of the series, 70 feet high, is also known as the"Livingstone falls," although never visited by the illustrious explorer. It isformed by a ledge of schistose rock confined on both sides by nearly vertical walls.During the floods the whole gorge is completely filled with the seething waters,but during the dry season the current is broken by projecting crags into severalfoaming channels of imequal size. The emerged rocks, damp with the spray ofthe tumbling waters, are overgrown with the Ancjohea fluitans, a plant with largesemi-transparent stem and covered with small white flowers.Immediately below the cataracts the Cuanza is accessible to steamers, noobstacle interfering with the navigation all the way to the sea, although in thissection of the river, about 120 miles long, there is a total fall of over 300 feet.The rocky gorge is contimied for 10 miles beyond the rapids, between high red,white, or bluish cliffs, to which an endless variety of shades and forms is addedby the climbing plants, tufted brushwood, and drapery of velvet mosses.Below the gorge the main stream is joined by the Mucoso, a considerableaffluent from the north, and farther on, also on the right bank, by the stiU morecopious Lu-Calla (Lua-Kalla), largest of all its tributaries. Like the Cuanzaitself, the Lu-Calla rises to the east of the Angola highlands, and like it forcesits way through them in a series of gorges where it plunges in its headlongcourse from fall to fall. The Lianzundo, one of these falls, is no less than 100feet in height. The Lu-Calla also describes a vast semicircle, but exactly in thecontrary direction to that of the Cuanza, for it takes its rise in the northern partof the Portuguese possessions, not far from the streams which flow on the oppositewatershed down to the Congo.After its junction with the Lu-Calla, the Cuanza is swollen by no furthercontributions from any direction, but on the contrary discharges its waters tothe right and left, into numerous lagoons or lateral reservoirs, which are successivelyflooded and almost completely emptied with the alternating wet and drj'-seasons. In the lower reaches the hills continually recede more and more fromthe fluvial bed, although a few bluflts still rise here and there along the banks ofthe river. One of these on the left side is the famous Pedro dos Feiticeircs,