At times, when it is very hot, after continued calms, they have violent whirlwinds, which destroy everything in their course, breaking trees, and taking up houses, and whirling them in the air as if they were straw mats. Some years, in the months of June and July, they have a hot wind from the south-west, which burns up everything that may be in the ground; but this is unusual.
From Iñhasuja (which is close to Killimane) to Mazaro, and even in different parts of the river, as high as Seña, the natives build their huts on stakes, about twenty feet above the ground, so that in the rainy season they will not be endangered by the floods, which are constant and sudden. During this time it is not unusual for a native to indulge in the luxury of fishing out of his bed. In 1855, thousands of the natives were drowned by the river rising higher than usual; many who escaped the flood fell victims to the famine that succeeded it.
Fish of different species abound in the Zambesi. Buqueña; a long fish, long head, no scales; white; from one to six feet in length, weighing about eight pounds; very oily, and without any small bones. Pende; from six to twenty inches in length, broad scales, black; from one to four pounds in weight; no small bones. Muja; from one to six feet in length; long scales; round head, sides silver, back black; from one to ten pounds in weight. Cação; shark, called in the salt water Tuberaõ. Similarly, certain fish of this family ascend the Senegal, Amazon, and other great rivers, to the distance of several hundred miles from the ocean (vide Lyell’s Manual of Elementary Geology, 5th edition, p. 126; and the Proceedings Geol. Soc., No. 43, p. 222). There are many other fish, and none poisonous.
The principal feeders or tributaries of the Zambesi are, the Shire, between Mazaro and Seña, which is now being explored by Dr. Livingstone; the Zangué, just below Seña (it is small); the Aruenha, between Massangane and Marangue; the Revubue, nearly opposite to Tete, besides the Loangwa, the Luambesi, and a host of others above the rapids of Kaord Vasa.
The banks of the river are well wooded with large timber; many varieties of which are well-adapted for ship-building, and all for household furniture and cabinet purposes.
The timber is to be found close to the stream. In the dry season it may be cut down, hewn into logs, placed on the banks of the river, and there formed into rafts, which, with the rising waters, could be easily navigated to the various mouths of the river, and supply the increasing wants of this country for ship-building timber. Here, as on the west coast of the same continent, side by side with the heavy teak wood, whose specific gravity is so great that it will barely float, and even sometimes sinks in the water, may be found the cork-wood tree, wherewith to float the heavy timber to the shipping.
See the Appendix A, for a list of Medicinal Botanical trees, herbs, and plants, and some of the uses to which they are put by the natives.
A list of woods to be found on the Zambesi, specimens of which were brought home by me, and are to be seen at the rooms of the Royal Geographical Society, will be found in Appendix B.