Aug.,"] Fuller, Some South African Scenes and Flowers. 6t. 



1915 j j j 



of these must have been quite i£ feet long, fleshy and green, 

 and seeded very like a marrow or cucumber. I have never 

 seen so many varieties of beautiful trees before, mostly com- 

 pound leaves, after the style of an acacia or rose, varying in 

 form and size. My want of botanical knowledge was a con- 

 tinuous regret to me, for there was no one with me in the least 

 interested in the flora. 



The next day we made an early start for Kandahar Island, 

 so called after Lord Roberts by Lord Kitchener. The island 

 is very like the others that are studded about that part of the 

 river, but the delight was the getting there, which meant about 

 eight or ten miles, reclining at the bottom of a canoe, and being 

 paddled up-stream by four natives. The regular swing of their 

 stroke as they prodded the water quite harmonized with the dreamy 

 atmosphere, gorgeous butterflies still hovering over us even in mid- 

 stream. After lunching on Kandahar Island we again boarded 

 our canoe, and later on landed on a charming little island called 

 Kyli Island. Here the vegetable ivory palm grows in abund- 

 ance, and I also saw a very pretty pale salmon-pink hibiscus. 

 As I had expressed a wish for some of the ivory palm fruit, 

 1 was soon quite inundated with them from all the four natives, 

 who knock them down very cleverly from the high palms by 

 throwing old fruits or sticks at them, bringing down one or 

 two with each throw. The fruit is rather like a miniature 

 cocoanut, only they grow like giant bunches of grapes, and 

 inside several coverings of each fruit is the ivory ball, about 

 half the size of a billiard ball. 



It was on this island, while I was making an attempt to 

 capture some of the lovely butterflies with an improvised net, 

 that I was startled by a huge iguana, about five feet long, 

 coming down a tree close in front of me. It had a bright 

 yellow waistcoat, and looked really formidable as it came 

 scurrying towards me, more terrified, no doubt, than I, as it 

 scrambled down the slope at the root of the tree and away to 

 my left. It was certainly the largest I had ever seen, though 

 they told me at the hotel that five feet was quite the average 

 size ; but for the moment my mind flew to the crocodiles that 

 I knew were so numerous in the river close by. It took me 

 some moments to recover from its sudden intrusion. Once 

 more in our canoe, after the natives had again regaled us with 

 afternoon tea, we glided down-stream with the tide, and made 

 for the boat-shed. It was much cooler, and we were 

 thoroughly enjoying the lazy motion of the boat, when I noticed 

 that the two front Zambesi boys were excited about something, 

 and I caught the word " Hippos," and there, to our right, not 

 far ahead, were three huge hippopotami disporting them- 

 selves in the river, opening their enormous, ugly mouths, and 



