eft Cassange on the 21st, we passed across the remaining portion
of this excessively fertile valley to the foot of Tala Mungongo. We
crossed a fine little stream called the Lui on the 22d, and another
named the Luare on the 24th, then slept at the bottom of the height,
which is from a thousand to fifteen hundred feet. The clouds came
floating along the valley, and broke against the sides of the ascent,
and the dripping rain on the tall grass made the slaps in the face it
gave, when the hand or a stick was not held up before it, any thing but
agreeable. This edge of the valley is exactly like the other; jutting
spurs and defiles give the red ascent the same serrated appearance as
that which we descended from the highlands of Londa. The whole of this
vast valley has been removed by denudation, for pieces of the plateau
which once filled the now vacant space stand in it, and present the same
structure of red horizontal strata of equal altitudes with those of
the acclivity which we are now about to ascend. One of these insulated
masses, named Kasala, bore E.S.E. from the place where we made our
exit from the valley, and about ten miles W.S.W. from the village of
Cassange. It is remarkable for its perpendicular sides; even the natives
find it extremely difficult, almost impossible, to reach its summit,
though there is the temptation of marabou-nests and feathers, which are
highly prized. There is a small lake reported to exist on its southern
end, and, during the rainy season, a sort of natural moat is formed
around the bottom. What an acquisition this would have been in feudal
times in England! There is land sufficient for considerable cultivation
on the top, with almost perpendicular sides more than a thousand feet in
height.

We had not yet got a clear idea of the nature of Tala Mungongo. A
gentleman of Cassange described it as a range of very high mountains,
which it would take four hours to climb; so, though the rain and grass
had wetted us miserably, and I was suffering from an attack of fever
got while observing by night for the position of Cassange, I eagerly
commenced the ascent. The path was steep and slippery; deep gorges
appear on each side of it, leaving but a narrow path along certain spurs
of the sierra for the traveler; but we accomplished the ascent in an
hour, and when there, found we had just got on to a table-land similar
to that we had left before we entered the great Quango valley. We had
come among lof