Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/284

 222 SOUTH AND EAST AFEICA. not abruptly interrupted, as it is farther south, by an unbroken rocky barrier. The track lies rather across grassy or wooded districts, which rise either almost imperceptibly or with a very gentle slope towards the inland plateaux. Amid these plains, however, stand out a few isolated eminences or even mountain masses, ftuch as the lofty hills round which the Sabi describes a great bend to the west and south, and which the Kafir ruler of Gazaland has chosen as the best site for his royal residence and citadel. Above this group of hills, the Ubiri of recent explorers,* rise three conspicuous summits, the Ubiri, Sipumgambili, and Silindi peaks, porphyry, trap, and basalt crags, with an estimated altitude of about 4,000 feet. The running waters, cutting their beds deep into the living rock, have carved these heights into several distinct sections, which are in many places of difficult access, owing to their steep slopes end the tall dense herbage, not easily penetrated by the explorer. Nevertheless the three highest crests are clothed with forests, where progress can be made with- out much trouble between the trunks of the trees. According to Erskine, the upper valleys of the Buzi, which has its source in these highlands, are destined one day to become a centre of European colonisation and culture. Here the climate is perfectly salubrious, and here both the sugar-cane and the coffee shrub find a congenial soil. Northwards this mountain group abuts on a red and white sandstone tableland over 3,000 feet high, connected by a few eminences with the Sita Tonga range, whose crests rise probably to a height of 5,000 feet. One of these crests, terminating in a sharp point, has received from the natives the expressive name of Gundi-Tnyanga, that is, " Moon-shaver." West of the Sabi the granite hills, resting on a more elevated plateau with a mean altitude exceeding 4,000 feet, present a far less imposing appearance. They are, in fact, for the most part mere undulations of the groimd with broad intervening depressions, where the waters lodge in shallow lacustrine or marshy basins. Nevertheless even here the Matoppo ridge presents granite domes rising to a height of 5,600 feet, while some of the crests are carved into obelisks and pyramids of the most eccentric outlines. Farther on the elevated ridges, whose axis continues the line of waterparting between the Limpopo and Zambese affluents, are disposed beyond the sources of the Sabi in an oblique direction with the coastline of the Sofala district. Here the highest chain, dominated by Mount Doe, which, according to Kuss, attains an altitude of 8,000 feet, presents the aspect less of a group of mountains than of an irregular plateau. Here is situated the Manica district, which has become famous for its gold-fields. The granite mass stands at a mean elevation of not less than 6,500 feet, while the surmounting crests are little more than low hills or gently sloping eminences. East of the Manica uplands the divide between the Zambese and the small coast streams is nothing more than an open plain interrupted at intervals by granite domes rising abruptly above the surface. South of this parting line of the waters the aspect of a frowning citadel is presented by the Gorongoza group • Browne and O'Donnel, Scottish Geographical Magazine for November, 1887.