IMPROVEMENTS. 261 



ence are not allowed to remain, and who when 

 they have found their way to Lourenc/) Marques 

 have nothing to do but idle away their time in 

 canteens till the arrival of a ship enables them 

 to leave the town. 



I am sorry to say that the advent of the rail- 

 way, so advantageous to others, has seriously 

 interfered with my work, as the line was com- 

 menced in the lovely Copani swamp I have 

 before mentioned, where I obtained all my rarest 

 autumn specimens, and my feelings may be 

 imagined when, instead of a lovely tropical spot 

 full of giant wild fig-trees with exquisite creepers 

 huge convolvulus and others festooning them 

 together, whilst large ferns and a yellow swamp 

 plant very like Coreopsis Drummondii covered 

 the ground, I saw nothing but a sea of black 

 stinking mud, with three hundred Kafirs work- 

 ing in it, digging trenches and throwing up 

 banks, while tents for the white engineers en- 

 cumbered the high ground, where also all the 

 trees had been chopped down, and bush and 

 grass alike destroyed by fire. 



