ountain west of the same point. The person who called this Lupata
"the spine of the world" evidently did not mean to say that it was
a translation of the word, for it means a defile or gorge having
perpendicular walls. This range does not deserve the name of either
Cordillera or Spine, unless we are willing to believe that the world has
a very small and very crooked "back-bone".

We passed through the gorge in two hours, and found it rather tortuous,
and between 200 and 300 yards wide. The river is said to be here always
excessively deep; it seemed to me that a steamer could pass through
it at full speed. At the eastern entrance of Lupata stand two conical
hills; they are composed of porphyry, having large square crystals
therein. These hills are called Moenda en Goma, which means a footprint
of a wild beast. Another conical hill on the opposite bank is named
Kasisi (priest), from having a bald top. We sailed on quickly with the
current of the river, and found that it spread out to more than two
miles in breadth; it is, however, full of islands, which are generally
covered with reeds, and which, previous to the war, were inhabited, and
yielded vast quantities of grain. We usually landed to cook breakfast,
and then went on quickly. The breadth of water between the islands was
now quite sufficient for a sailing vessel to tack, and work her sails
in; the prevailing winds would blow her up the stream; but I regretted
that I had not come when the river was at its lowest rather than at
its highest. The testimony, however, of Captain Parker and Lieutenant
Hoskins, hereafter to be noticed, may be considered conclusive as to the
capabilities of this river for commercial purposes. The Portuguese state
that there is high water during five months of the year, and when it is
low there is always a channel of deep water. But this is very winding;
and as the river wears away some of the islands and forms others, the
course of the channel is often altered. I suppose that an accurate
chart of it made in one year would not be very reliable the next; but I
believe, from all that I can learn, that the river could be navigated in
a small flat-bottomed steamer during the whole year as far as Tete. At
this time a steamer of large size could have floated easily. The river
was measured at the latter place by the Portuguese, and found by them to
be 1050 yards broad. The body of water flowing past when I was there
was very great, and the breadth it