Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/816

Rh 766 Z A M Z A M west, the Kongone, the Luabo, and the Timbwe. The best of these, the Kongone, has altered and the channel im proved recently. There are at least 1 8 feet of water on the bar at high water neap tides ; and steamers drawing 1 5 feet, and sailing vessels drawing 3 feet less, have no diffi culty in entering. The deep water continues only a short distance ; and, after Mazaro (60 miles) is reached, where the river has already dwindled to the breadth of a mile, the channel is precariously open in the dry season as far as Senna ( 1 20 miles from the mouth) for vessels drawing 4^ feet. Up to this point navigation could only be suc cessfully and continuously carried on by vessels of much lighter draught stern -wheelers for preference with a draught of little more than 18 inches. About 90 miles from Senna the river enters the Lupata gorge, the im petuous current contracting between walls to a width of scarcely 200 yards. Passing Tete (240 miles from the mouth with a smooth course), the channel becomes danger ous at Kebrabassa, 90 miles farther on. From the Kebra- bassa rapids upwards, and past the Victoria Falls, there are occasional stretches of navigable water extending for considerable distances, while the upper Zambesi with its confluents and their tributaries forms a really fine and ex tensive waterway. Like the Nile, the Zambesi is visited by annual inundations, during which the whole country is Hooded and many of the minor falls and rapids are then obliterated. The chief physical feature of the Zambesi is the Mosi- oa-tunya (&quot;smoke sounds there&quot;) or Victoria Falls, ad mitted to be one of the noblest waterfalls in the world. The cataract is bounded on three sides by ridges 300 or 400 feet high, and these, along with the many islands dotted over the stream, are covered with sylvan vegetation. The falls, according to Livingstone, are caused by a stupendous crack or rent, with sharp and almost unbroken edges, stretching right across the river in the hard black basalt which here forms the bed. The cleft is 360 feet in sheer depth and close upon a mile in length. Into this chasm, of more than twice the depth of Niagara, the river rolls with a deafening roar, sending up vast columns of spray, which are visible for a distance of 20 miles. Unlike Niagara, the Mosi-oa-tunya does not terminate in an open gorge, the river immediately below the fall being blocked at 80 yards distance by the opposing side of the (supposed) cleft running parallel to the precipice which forms the waterfall. The only outlet is a narrow channel cut in this barrier at a point 1170 yards from the western end of the chasm and some 600 from its eastern, and through this the Zambesi, now only 20 or 30 yards wide, pours for 120 yards before emerging into the enormous zig-zag trough which conducts the river past the basalt plateau. The region drained by the Zambesi may be represented as a vast broken-edged plateau 3000 or 4000 feet high, composed in the remote interior of metamorphic beds and fringed with the igneous rocks of the Victoria Falls. At Shupanga, on the lower Zambesi, thin strata of grey and yellow sandstones, with an occasional band of limestone, crop out on the bed of the river in the dry season, and these persist beyond Tete, where they are associated with extensive seams of coal. Gold is also known to occur in several places. The higher regions of the Zambesi have only been visited by one or two explorers ; and the lower, though nominally in possession of the Portuguese since the beginning of the ]6th century, are also comparatively little known. The Barotse valley or valley of the upper Zambesi is a vast pastoral plain, 3300 feet above sea-level, about 189 miles in length and 30 to 35 broad. Though inundated in the rainy season, it is covered with villages and supports count less herds of cattle. The Luinas who inhabit it are clothed with .skins, work neatly in ivory, and live upon milk, maize, and sweet potatoes. In the neighbourhood of the falls the tsetse fly abounds, so that the Butoka people who live there, and who are the only arboriculturists in the country, live upon the products of their gardens. Zumbo, on the north bank, and Chicova, opposite on the southern side (500 miles above the delta), were the farthest inland of the Portuguese East African settlements, and are well placed for commerce with the natives. Founded by Pereira, a native of Goa, these settlements were ultimately allowed to go to ruins ; but Zumbo has been recently re-ocCupied. The once celebrated gold mines of Parda Pemba are in the vicinity. The only other Portuguese settle ments on the Zambesi are Tete and Senna. Tete, formerly a large and important place, now nearly in ruins, still possesses a fort and several good tiled stone and mud houses. Thither Portuguese goods, chieily wines and provisions, are carried by means of canoes. The exports, which include ivory, gold dust, wheat, and ground nuts, are limited owing to the difficulty of transport ; but this diili- culty is not insurmountable, for Tete has been twice visited by small steam vessels. Senna, farther down the river, a neglected and unhealthy village, has suffered much from political mismanage ment, and has ceaseless troubles with the Landeens or Zulus, who own the southern bank of the river and collect in force every year to exact a heavy tribute-money. The industrial possibilities of the lower Zambesi, and indeed of the whole river-system, are enormous. India-rubber, indigo, archil, beeswax, and calumba root are plenti ful, and oil seeds and the sugar-cane could be produced in sufficient quantity to supply the whole of Europe. The Zambesi region was known to the mediaeval geographers as the empire of Monomotapa, and the course of the river, as well as the position of Lakes N gami and Nyassa, was filled in. with a rude approximation to accuracy in the earlier maps. These were prob ably constructed from Arab information. The first European to visit the upper Zambesi was Livingstone in his exploration from Bechuanaland between 1851 and 1853. Two or three years later he descended the Zambesi to its mouth and in the course of this journey discovered the Victoria Falls. In 1859, accompanied by Dr Kirk (now Sir John Kirk), Livingstone ascended the river as far as the falls, after tracing the course of its main tributary the Shire and discovering Lake Nyassa. The mouths of the Zambesi were long claimed exclusively by the Portuguese, but in 1 888 the British Government opened negotiations with Portugal to have the river declared free to all nations. (H. D.) ZAMORA, an inland province of Spain, one of the three into which the former province of Leon has since 1833 been divided, is bounded on the W. by Tras-os-Montes (Portugal) and Orense, on the N. by Leon, on the E. by Valladolid, and on the S. by Salamanca; its area is 4135 square miles. It is traversed from east to west by the Douro, Avhich receives within the province the Val- deraduey and the Esla on the right and the Guarena on the left ; the Tonnes also skirts the south-western boundary for some 25 miles. Except in the north-west and west, where it is entered by spurs from the Cantabrian chain (Sierra de la Culebra and Sierra de Peiia Negra), the pro vince is flat ; its lowest point is 1070 feet above sea-level. Its plains, especially the &quot; tierra de campo &quot; formed by the valley of the Esla, yield large quantities of grain and pulse ; wine and flax are also produced ; and on the higher grounds large numbers of merino sheep are fed. The industries of Zamora are unimportant. The province is traversed by no railway except that connecting its capital with Medina del Campo on the northern line. There are eight partidos judiciales and 300 ayuntamientos ; besides ZAMORA (see below), the capital, there is only one town, the historic city of Toro (7754), with a population exceeding 5000. The total population of the province in 1877 was 250,000. ZAMORA, capital of the above province, is situated 2000 feet above sea-level, on the right bank of the Douro (here crossed by a bridge of seventeen pointed arches) a little below its junction with the Valderaduey, 57 miles by rail west by north from Medina del Campo and 182 miles north-west from Madrid. The population in 1877 was 13,632. It has a small but fine Romanesque cathedral (completed about 1174) and an ancient castle, as well as several other interesting churches of the 12th century. It is the seat of a seminary and an academy of engineering, and has unimportant linen and woollen manufactures. In the early period of the Christian re-conquest Zamora, from its position on the north of the Douro, was a place of considerable strategic importance. It was taken from the Arabs by Alonso the