The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

TOrOGRAl'UY OF MAri'.l'.KI.KLAND. 271Further auriferous deposits wore brought to light by Mr. F. C. Selous duriugan ex2)loriug expedition to the Mashoua country, from which he returned inJanuary, 1888. A considerable tract of alluvial gold-fields was discovered, besidesa very remarkable excavation in solid rock, which Mr. Selous believes to be amine of very ancient date. On this subject he writes :" At Sinoia, near the riverAngwa (a tributary of the Mauyame), there is an immense circular hole about aliundred feet or more in depth and sixty feet or more in diameter, at the bottom ofwhich is a pool of water which extends some hundred and eight}- feet into a vastcavern in the rock. The water is of the most wonderful colour—a deep cobaltblue—and very clear, as pebbles are visible al a great depth on the bottom.Thereis a slanting shaft or tunnel running at an angle of about forty-five degrees from apoint about a hundred yards distant from the top of tlie hole, a\ Inch strikes thebottom of the latter just at the edge of the water. "\Ve are inclined to think thatall these excavation.s are the result of old gold-workings, and that a vein of quartzlias been worked out down the tunnel, and that eventually a spring was tapped,tlie water of which, welling up from below, has formed the subterranean lake.the whole thing is the work of man, a truly extraordinary amount of labour musthave been expended in this place. The natives have built a stockaded town roundthe old gold mine, or whatever it is, and go down the tunnel to draw water. Webathed in it and swam up the cavern to the other end of the pool ; the water wasquite warm. The rock on each side is covered with innumerable scorings, whichlook as if they had been done with some kind of iron instrument." *Senna, or Sffo-J/r/rr^^/, the " moribimd," which lies on the right bank of theZambese, at the foot of a high bluff, and over against the navigable Ziu-Ziu branchcommunicating with the Shire, is even a more decayed place than Tetc. It hasoften had to pay tribute to its Umgoni (Angoui Zulu) neighbours, and even tobarricade itself at night against the lions. The climate also is imhealthy, theatmosphere being charged with malarious vapours rising from the stagnant watersleft by the river, which is here gradually shitting its bed in the direction of thenorth. Hence it has been pro2JOsed to remove the town to the left or north sideof the Zambese, which is swept by the current, without leaving any lagoons orsluggish backwaters.IfiMr.vmxAMS OF the Nv.\.ss.v and Siiikk Basi.n~.South of the Zambese the military empires of Gazaland and Matebelelaud \wrcfounded by warlike Zidu conquerors, advancing from the south. North of theriver vast territories have also been occupied by invaders of the same martialrace. But being here di^-ided into independent bands, without any nationalcohesion, they have been unable to found any powerful states. These Kafirs,variously known as Mavitis (^la-Viti) and Ma/itus (Ma-Zitu), are the Munhacs ofGamitto, and are also called ilangoncs (Ma-Xgone'l, a name almost identical withthat of the Umgoni invaders and conquerors of the region comprised between the• r,ocee,i,iigs of the Roijal Gfog,-apl„cal .W.'./y, ir;iivli, ISSS, p. 101.