Some Notes on Part of the Gwembe Valley in Northern Rhodesia

AT the Victoria Falls the Zambezi river plunges into a narrow gorge with -precipitous sides, some 400 feet deep. The river, which above the Falls attains in one place a breadth of 2 miles, is confined in a rocky channel only a few yards broad. This gorge continues for more than 40 mifes down stream from its point of origin and finally debouches into what is generally known as the Gwembe valley. The sides do not remain uniformly steep for, although isolated rocks and cliffs stand out at intervals, numerous streams and rivers flowing down on either hand have cut back the sides of the gorge and made access to it generally no easy task in the immediate vicinity of Victoria Falls. At the same time these tributary waters have created on either side of the Zambezi an ever-widening strip of mountainous, inaccessible, and unin? habited country.1 The Zambezi in this part of its course has no very large affluents. The first tributary is the Kalomo river which flows in on the left bank somewhere about 25 miles below the Falls. The exact distance has never been accurately determined, and so far as I know no one has ever explored this section of the river and left any record of the journey. At the Kalomo confluence the gorge is bounded by steep hills and the Zambezi is on an average 100 to 150 yards broad. Thirty miles below the Kalomo the Matetsi river joins on the right bank, and 15 miles below the Matetsi the Deka; another 15 miles and the Gwaai confluence is reached. Both the latter join from the right bank. I have been at the Deka confluence but not at either the Gwaai or Matetsi confluences. Below the Gwaai river