Some fine mimosas afforded a delicious shade, their crowns being too leafy for the sunshine to penetrate; and as we left the depression in which they were growing, we found that the soil became more and more level, till all at once it suddenly sloped down again into the valleys of the Chobe and the Zambesi.
Here was the realization of the vision of my youth! Here I was actually gazing on the stream that had mingled itself with my boyish dreams! Never shall I forget the panorama that then broke upon my view, nor the emotion with which I gazed on the valley beneath me.
Vol. II.
Page 108.
ELEPHANTS ON THE MARCH.
It took me a few minutes to collect my thoughts. The valley in front stretched away three miles to the right, being bounded on the left by a plain that seemed absolutely unlimited. On the side on which I stood it was overhung by wooded rocks. In the middle of it were two islands, formed by the imperfect 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.