are always found near gold workings; they are built
in the same way of granite, hewn into small blocks
somewhat bigger than a brick, and put together without
mortar. In the base of both of these there is
the same herring-bone course as at Zimbabwe, though
nearer the base of the wall. . . - The remains on the
Impakwe are similar in construction and are within
fifty yards of the river ; it was evidently an octagonal
tower.’ Mr. Moffat, our political agent in Matabele-
land, in speaking to me about this ruin, told me how
it had been much demolished during his recollection,
owing to the fact that all waggons going.up to Mata-
beleland outspari near it, and the men assist at its
demolition.
There is another ruin of a similar character near
where the’ Biver Efibi flows into the Limpopo, and
another further up the Mazoe Valley than the one
we visited.1
I have alluded to these ruins, which I have not
seen, to prove the great area over which they are
spread, and I have little doubt that as the country
gets opened out a great many more will be brought
to fight, proving the extensive population which
once lived here as a garrison in a hostile country, for
the sake of the gold which they' extracted from the
mines in the quartz reefs between the Zambesi and
Limpopo Bivers.
Erom personal experience I can speak of the ruins
on the Lundi Biver; of those at and near Zimbabwe;
of the chain of forts on the Sabi Biver, including
1 Vide Cliap. IX.