Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/24

 8 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. or " Fetish Rock," over which the Quis^amas formerly hurled the unhappy wretches accused of witchcraft. The mouth of the Cuanza is obstructed by a dangerous bar, which is usually crossed by the local pilots on a raft, or rather a single plank of herminiera wood about 8 feet long and scarcely 3 feet wide. Kneeling on this spar, they steer their course with the aid of a single paddle, and thus reach the steamers which are at times riding at anchor over a mile from the coast. South of the Cuanza as far as the Cunene, none of the streams rising on the outer slopes of the mountains or in the western valleys can acquire any great development, nor are any of them utilised for navigation. They also flow through a region enjoying a less abundant rainfall than Northern Angola, so that many of them are completely exhausted during the dry season. They thus resemble the wadys of North and the nmaramhas or intermittent streams of South Africa. The chief permanent rivers are the Luga, running parallel with the lower Cuanza; the Cuvo (Keve), which discharges into Old Benguella Bay; the Bailombo, the Catumbella, and the Coporolo. Of all these little coast streams the Catimibella is the best known, owing to the vicinity of the city of Benguella. About 7 miles from the sea it develops the romantic cataract of Upa, where the whole stream is pent up within a rocky gorge scarcely 9 yards wide. Tho Cunene, which in Angola yields in length and volume to the Cuanza alone, has recently acquired an exceptional political importance as the line of demarca- tion between the Portuguese possessions and the territ ry annexed to the German colonial empire. Like the Cuanza, it rises to the east of the central highlands, and flows at first iilong the inner continental slope jointly with the Ku-Bango, and the eastern affluents of the Zambese ; but after escaping from this basin it describes a great bend to the west, piercing the intervening rocky barriers on its south-westerly course to the Atlantic. It develops altogether a total length of no less than 720 miles, the area of its drainage being estimated at about 110,000 square miles. Rising in the Jamba Mountains, over four degrees to the north of the latitude of its estuary, it skirts the southern and south-western base of the central uplands, collecting on both banks a large number of affluents during its winding upper and middle course. At Quiteve, a riverain village some 240 miles from its sources, Capello and Ivens found that even in June, that is, in the dry season, it had a breadth of nearly 500 feet, with a mean depth of over 8 feet. It flows between wooded banks with great velocity, but unobstructed by cataracts. During the rainy season this beautiful stream assumes the proportions of a mighty watercourse, fully justifying its native name of Cunene, that is, Ku-Nene, or " Great River." At this period it overflows its banks to the right and left, flooding the surround- ing pluins for several miles. At one point a depression many square miles in extent is transformed to a vast reservoir which receives the overflow of the upper Cunene After the subsidence of the waters, this depression is strewn with small lakes and stagnant meres ; the muddy bottom-lands are overgrown with