of Golungo Alto.  The trap has frequently run through the gorges made in the upheaved rocks, and at the points of junction between the igneous and older rocks there are large quantities of strongly magnetic iron ore.  The clayey soil formed by the disintegration of the mica schist and trap is the favorite soil for the coffee; and it is on these mountain sides, and others possessing a similar red clay soil, that this plant has propagated itself so widely.  The meadow-lands adjacent to the Senza and Coanza being underlaid by that marly tufa which abounds toward the coast, and containing the same shells, show that, previous to the elevation of that side of the country, this region possessed some deeply-indented bays.

28Th September, KALUNGWEMBO.—­We were still on the same path by which we had come, and, there being no mosquitoes, we could now better enjoy the scenery.  Ranges of hills occupy both sides of our path, and the fine level road is adorned with a beautiful red flower named Bolcamaria.  The markets or sleeping-places are well supplied with provisions by great numbers of women, every one of whom is seen spinning cotton with a spindle and distaff, exactly like those which were in use among the ancient Egyptians.  A woman is scarcely ever seen going to the fields, though with a pot on her head, a child on her back, and the hoe over her shoulder, but she is employed in this way.  The cotton was brought to the market for sale, and I bought a pound for a penny.  This was the price demanded, and probably double what they ask from each other.  We saw the cotton growing luxuriantly all around the market-places from seeds dropped accidentally.  It is seen also about the native huts, and, so far as I could learn, it was the American cotton, so influenced by climate as to be perennial.  We met in the road natives passing with bundles of cops, or spindles full of cotton thread, and these they were carrying to other parts to be woven into cloth.  The women are the spinners, and the men perform the weaving.  Each web is about 5 feet long, and 15 or 18 inches wide.  The loom is of the simplest construction, being nothing but two beams placed one over the other, the web standing perpendicularly.  The threads of the web are separated by means of a thin wooden lath, and the woof passed through by means of the spindle on which it has been wound in spinning.

The mode of spinning and weaving in Angola, and, indeed, throughout South Central Africa, is so very like the same occupations in the hands of the ancient Egyptians, that I introduce a woodcut from the interesting work of Sir Gardner Wilkinson.  The lower figures are engaged in spinning in the real African method, and the weavers in the left-hand corner have their web in the Angolese fashion.*