MONKEYS. 105 



burying-grouud but now I am enabled to go 

 over it in all directions, as the wretched Kafirs 

 are cutting down the large trees for firewood 

 in the most reckless fashion, without let or hin- 

 drance. 



I believe a law does exist forbidding the cut- 

 ting of green wood, but nobody now enforces it, 

 and the authorities take no notice of the repeated 

 requests to save the trees made by some of the 

 residents. The Kafirs, too, are very artful, and 

 often give a sly chop at a fine branch, so that it 

 dies, and then " they are only cutting dead 

 wood." 



There is a large belt of bush about a mile from 

 my cottage, going eastward over the hill, which 

 must formerly have been a dense wood, but now 

 is all low thicket full of flowering shrubs and 

 creepers, which fill the air with their sweet frag- 

 rance when in blossom. Some few handsome 

 clumps of large trees were still standing when 

 I arrived, affording a grateful shade and a home 

 for many birds, but they are disappearing one by 

 one, much to my sorrow. Were it not for the 



