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 junction of the two rivers, parting again to meet finally further on. The eastern, or “Prager” island, was flat and small, being only a few hundred yards in breadth, and still less in length; the other was nearly six miles long, varying from two to three miles wide; it had several wooded hills, one peak of which rose conspicuously by itself upon the east, considerably above any of the contiguous heights. Just below this was Impalera, the town of Makumba, and, as it were, the southern “watch-tower” of the Marutse kingdom.

In front of Impalera, and about four miles from me, the Chobe was gleaming beautifully. It was there about 300 yards wide, and bordered with reeds.

The hills on the island are detached portions of the long ridge that makes the rocks and rapids of the Chobe, and which runs along further north so as again to form the rocks and rapids of the Zambesi on a larger scale, whence it is continued till finally it joins the rocky declivity of the plateau beyond the river at the Victoria Falls.

Towards the west the valley was bounded only by the blue line of the horizon.

I gazed long with the intensest interest. There—yes, there, only just beyond that single expanse of reed-thickets—there, lighted up by the rich and gorgeous red of the setting sun—there was the land which from my early childhood it had been my ambition to explore!