Kura River

“ The Kohara river ran between steep cliffs through the bed of the valley, and, as usual, above the cliffs on each side there were cultivated maidans or plateaus. Over the right-hand maidan, the road—our road—ran to a fortified village. Behind the village, a deep gorge, or nullah, as we call them in these parts, descending from a side glacier high up at the back of the hills on our right, cut clean across the valley, like a great gash. The sides of the nullah were extraordinarily precipitous, and on the edge furthest from us stone sangars were already built as a second line of defence. ”

“ In the western parts of the system they mostly go to feed the Kara-muren or the Cherchen-darya, while farther east they flow down into some larger self-contained basin of internal drainage, such as the Achik-kol, the two lakes Kara-kol, or the Ghaz-kol, and even yet farther east make their way, some of them into the lakes of the Tsaidam depression or become lost in its sands or in those of the Kum-tagh desert on the north, or go to feed the headstreams of the great rivers, the Hwang-ho (Yellow River) and the Yangtsze-kiang (Blue River) in the south. ”

“ The river is falling rapidly and navigation becomes more difficult every week.
Kurna is aesthetically disappointing. The junction of the rivers is unimpressive, and the place itself a mere quayside and row of mud houses among thin and measly palms. It is of course the traditional site of Eden.
Above Kurna the river is not only halved in width, as one would expect, but narrows rapidly. Most of the day it was only a hundred yards wide and by evening only 60; and of the sixty only a narrow channel is navigable and that has a deep strong current which makes the handling of the boat very difficult. ”

“ There, this great central water-parting, so formidable in its altitudes for many hundreds of miles, sinks to insignificant levels and the comparatively gentle gradients of a debased and disintegrated range. This divide is parted and split by the passage of the Hari Rud River; but the passage of the river is hill-enclosed and narrow, with many a rock-bound gorge which would not readily lend itself to railway-making (although by no means precluding it) , so that the ridges of the divide could be better passed elsewhere. ”

“ Here I obtained the most consistent accounts of the river system which, within five days' journey, trends through Uzegura; and I concluded, from what I heard, that there is no doubt of the Mukondokua and Wami rivers being one and the same stream. My informants were the natives of the settlement, and they all concurred in saying that the Kingani above the junction is called the Rufu, meaning the parent stream. Beyond it, following under the line of the hills, at one day's journey distant, there is a smaller river called Msonge. ”

“ All along the course of the Manganui-a-te-Ao the scenery was of the wildest description; the steep cliffs and mountains towering above us in the grandest confusion. In many places the colossal trees reached their broad branches over the precipices that bordered the stream, in a vivid canopy of green, while the foaming cascades beneath echoed with a roaring sound through the deep valleys as the blue, dancing waters swept onward in their precipitous course along the winding, rock-bound ravine that formed the channel of this remarkable river. ”

“ But the Kitangure River, according to the Arabs, falls into the Nyanza diagonally from south-west to north-east. Its embouchure will, therefore, not be distant from the equator. The line of road is thus described: After ascending the hills of Ruhembe the route, deflecting eastward, pursues for three days the lacustrine plain of the Nyanza. At Tenga, the fourth station, the first gradient of the Karagwah mountains is crossed, probably at low levels, where the spurs fall towards the lake. ”

“ When the snow melts in summer, the water flows as steadily into it, as it does in winter. Its water is salt, though its only feeder be a fresh river; but this is in accordance with the laws of nature, since it has no outlet of any kind. The next river is that of Kurshee, which rises in the same high lands as the Kohik, and passes through Shuhr Subz and Kurshee, below which it is lost in the desert. The blessings of water are most ap [162] parent in the neighbourhood of this river. The fields of Shuhr Subz yield rich crops of rice; and Kurshee is a sheet of gardens and orchards. ”

“ The river itself above Ras-el-Hudi is, during March and April, only a dry bed of white sand about 400 yards broad, but dotted with deep and beautifully clear pools, in which peculiarly brilliant fish and crocodiles, deprived of their stream, are crowded together. The atmosphere is more damp than by the Nile, and produces, in the terrible heat of the summer, profuse and exhausting perspiration. The natives dislike the water of the Atbara, and declare that it does not quench the thirst like that of the great river. ”

“ There is no chart of the big river worth two cents in the dry season, because unexpected sand banks come barking up in the fairway, and there are whole stretches of river wherein less than a fathom of water runs. Sometimes the boy sitting on the bow of the Zaire, thrusting a pliant rod into the stream, would cry through his nose that there were two fathoms of water when there was but one.
He was, as I have beforetime said, of the Kano folk, and somewhat religious, dreaming of a pilgrimage to Mecca, and a green band round his tarboosh. ”

“ The riverside scenery is interesting and beautiful in the lower as well as in the higher reaches, and the dome-palms [212] become more numerous as one advances northward and add to the charm of the banks. There was no other vegetation when we saw the country except low-grown mimosas and mimosa-scrub. Sand stretches away on either side from the course of the river, and we crossed few khors after leaving Goz Regeb, for the rainfall in this region is absorbed in the soil and is insufficient to produce torrents which would scour a course towards the stream. ”

“ They live in the caves amongst most inaccessible parts of these mountains. They use the bow and arrow. Few are now left, as far as we know, for they never show themselves, and keep as much away from mankind as the beast of the forest.
Travelling on through mountain passes, we arrived at a native station where the chief, Klas Lucas, lived, who claimed all the country north, to the Kuruman river, which is a wild district, having several isolated hills, and being scarce of water, particularly towards the Kuruman and Molapo rivers. ”

“ That on the eastern side of the Kunar River, from the river bank up to the crest of the main range which forms the watershed between the Kunar River and the country (lit. direction) of Barawal and Bajaur, this frontier follows the southern watershed of the Arnawai stream, which falls into the Kunar River close to the village of Arnawai, leaving to Chitrar all the country of which the drainage falls into the Kunar River, by means of this stream, while the southern drainage of this last-mentioned watershed, which does not fall into the Arnawai stream, pertains to Afghanistan. ”

“ In winter, when the river is frozen, travellers are able to continue their course along its bed by proceeding on the ice in those places where the steepness of the rocks obstructs the passage; but at other seasons it is necessary to make a long détour, and to ascend a lateral ravine for eight miles before a point is reached where the steep ridge is capable of being crossed. Leaving Kuru on the morning of the 26th of October, I encamped at the village of Waris, elevated 12,400 feet, among a few fields from which the crops had long been cleared. ”

“ The width of the White Nile now increases, until it resembles a lake rather than a river. The forest land entirely disappears. The river here is thronged by immense flocks of pelicans, storks, geese, ducks, and other water-birds.
Eventually the palms of Khartoum and the roofs of Omdurman are distinguishable in the distance, and the historic tree—mentioned by the earlier travellers as the spot where all fleets starting for the south used to assemble—makes a good landmark on the eastern bank. ”

“ Making our way through the crowded bergs to the extreme head of the fiord, we entered the mouth of the river, but were soon compelled to turn back on account of the strength of the current. The Taku River is a large stream, nearly a mile wide at the mouth, and, like the Stickeen, Chilcat, and Chilcoot, draws its sources from far inland, crossing the mountain-chain from the interior through a majestic cañon, and draining a multitude of glaciers on its way. ”

“ Its waters are intensely bitter, and of a milky colour for many miles from the source; the bitter taste of the mineral substance which the water holds in solution is quite appreciable at the mouth of the river after a course of about seventy miles.
It was down this river that the wonderful avalanche of ice and mud forced its way from Ruapehu to the sea in 1863, scouring out the bed of the river, destroying a bridge, and doing great damage to the native cultivations. ”

“ Finally, Captain Speke made his own lake a physical impossibility. Within little more than 60 miles from east to west he has given it three main effluents, the Mwerango, the Luajerri, and the Nile or Napoleon channel, to say nothing of the Myo Myanza, the Murchison Creek, the Usoga stream, together with the Asúa river from the Baringo. ”

“ The Amur proper flows at first in a south-easterly direction for about 800 m., as far as long. 132° E., separating Manchuria from the Amur government; it then turns to the north-east, cuts its way through the Little Khingan mountains in a gorge 2000 ft. wide and 140 m. long, and after a total course of over 1700 m. discharges into the Sea of Okhotsk, opposite to the island of Sakhalin. It is estimated to drain an area of 772,000 sq. m. Its principal tributaries from the south are the Sungari, which the Chinese consider to be the true head-river of the Amur, and the Usuri ”

“ It had evidently been often used as camping ground by Wara-Sura bands and Toro caravans bound for the Salt Lakes, and as water was far, the tired cooks used the water from some pits that had been excavated by thirsty native travellers. This water created terrible sickness amongst us.
The next day we crossed the Nsongi, a river fifty feet wide and thirty inches deep, and immediately after we began to ascend to the lofty uplands of Uhaiyana, which form, with Eastern Toro, Kitagwenda, and Ankori, the eastern wall of the basin of the Lake Albert Edward. ”

“ Two lakes occupy the bottom of the valley where the water turns, separated by a mossy flat; the water from the north-west, which is half a mile in extent, forming the Pass Creek, while that of the South Lake, which is 2 miles long and half a mile wide, forms the Greenstone River that flows to the Wakatipu Lake. From the top of the hill I obtained a view of a second and even deeper valley, which I suspect leads through to the Mavora Lakes and is the route which has been frequently traversed by the Maoris, between the Wakatipu, Kaduku, and Riverton. ”

“ Some low oaks flourish among the boulders; the rock is a glassy augite-andesite. The ridge leads over into a little plain, bordered upon the north by the wall of the Khamur plateau, and with a high rim upon the side of the river, which cannot be seen. The plain has evidently been covered by a lake in fairly recent times. A crack in the rim of the basin displays the channel through which it was drained. On the side of Kolibaba an old beach line was visible, some fifty feet above the level of this plain. The soil consists of a black clay which is not cultivated, but which must be very rich. ”

“ This diagonality may result from the compound incline produced by the northern counterslope of the mountains of Karagwah and the south-westward depression necessary to form and to supply the lake. The Katonga is a sluggish and almost stagnant body of considerable breadth, and when swollen it arrests the progress of caravans. Some portions of the river are crossed, according to the Arabs, over a thick growth of aquatic vegetation, which forms a kind of matwork, capable of [188] supporting a man’s weight, and cattle are towed over in the more open parts by cords attached to their horns. ”

“ The Kioga lake system, lying north of the ridge which separates it from Victoria Nyanza, owes its formation in part to the waters pouring down from the Nyanza, and is in the nature of a huge Nile backwater. The lake itself is rarely more than 20 ft. deep; its greatest length is 85 m.; its greatest width 10 m. Below Mruli, the fall in the bed levels of the Nile, which up to this point has been comparatively gradual, increases considerably. At Karuma, where the western bend to the Albert Nyanza is made, the river falls over a wall-like ledge of rock, 5 ft. high, which extends across its bed. ”

“ Most of the larger affluents of the Barito are also navigable throughout the 258 greater part of their courses. The south-eastern like the north-western corner of the island is watered by a considerable number of short mountain streams. The one great river of the eastern versant is the Kutei or Mahakan, which, rising in the central mountains, flows east with a sinuous course and falls by numerous mounts into the Straits of Madassar. ”

“ The natives seldom make use of the Tampasuk beyond the spot where the river divides, though above it rafts are occasionally used; but it evidently is not a general practice, as the river is filled with fish traps, which require the stream to be dammed across with loose stone walls.
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The hills do not press closely to the river’s banks; if they do so on one side, the other is certain to have a strip of low land, along which the path is carried; in fact, from the sea to Koung village there is but one steep hill to cross. ”