drowned.  No one ever risked his life in Kariba without first paying the river-doctor, or priest, for his prayers.  Our men asked if there was a cataract in front, but he declined giving any information; they were not on his side of the river; if they would come over, then he might be able to tell them.  We crossed, but he went off to the village.  We then landed and walked over the hills to have a look at Karaba before trusting our canoes in it.  The current was strong, and there was broken water in some places, but the channel was nearly straight, and had no cataract, so we determined to risk it.  Our men visited the village while we were gone, and were treated to beer and tobacco.  The priest who knows how to pray to the god that rules the rapids followed us with several of his friends, and they were rather surprised to see us pass down in safety, without the aid of his intercession.  The natives who followed the dead hippopotamus caught it a couple of miles below, and, having made it fast to a rock, were sitting waiting for us on the bank beside the dead animal.  As there was a considerable current there, and the rocky banks were unfit for our beds, we took the hippopotamus in tow, telling the villagers to follow, and we would give them most of the meat.  The crocodiles tugged so hard at the carcass, that we were soon obliged to cast it adrift, to float down in the current, to avoid upsetting the canoe.  We had to go on so far before finding a suitable spot to spend the night in, that the natives concluded we did not intend to share the meat with them, and returned to the village.  We slept two nights at the place where the hippopotamus was cut up.  The crocodiles had a busy time of it in the dark, tearing away at what was left in the river, and thrashing the water furiously with their powerful tails.  The hills on both sides of Kariba are much like those of Kebrabasa, the strata tilted and twisted in every direction, with no level ground.

Although the hills confine the Zambesi within a narrow channel for a number of miles, there are no rapids beyond those near the entrance.  The river is smooth and apparently very deep.  Only one single human being was seen in the gorge, the country being too rough for culture.  Some rocks in the water, near the outlet of Kariba, at a distance look like a fort; and such large masses dislocated, bent, and even twisted to a remarkable degree, at once attest some tremendous upheaving and convulsive action of nature, which probably caused Kebrabasa, Kariba, and the Victoria Falls to assume their present forms; it took place after the formation of the coal, that mineral having then been tilted up.  We have probably nothing equal to it in the present quiet operations of nature.