Physical Description of Matabeleland.

The boundaries of Matabeleland lying between the Zambesi and Limpopo will be seen from any of the maps which have been recently published. The watershed, stretching from Mount Umtigesa in Northern Mashonaland to the Bakarikari Lake in Bechuanaland, is some five thousand feet above sea-level, covered with gold-bearing reefs, fast-running streams, and very healthy. The chief strata are granitic, with occasional sandstone and shale. The northern slopes of the table-land fall through a very broken, poor and inhospitable country to the Zambesi. Towards the east the plateau slopes are abrupt and precipitous, forming a network of rugged hills, where the native tribes (Mashonas and Makalakas) are found, with their villages and hamlets hidden away as far as possible from sight, so as to avoid the Matabele, at whose hands they have suffered so much. The rains are very severe along this broken edge of the plateau, due to the rain-laden clouds from the Indian Ocean being arrested by this buttress and thus precipitated.