IN AUSTRAL AFRICA. 297 



are intensely foreign to European eyes. Frequently 

 they grow upright to the height of seventy feet or 

 even more, at other times they might almost be 

 deemed creepers; the bark, however, is always deeply 

 annulated, and the surface and wood extremely 

 spongy and full of sap, which is a deadly poison to 

 all cloven-footed animals and horses. 



The natives, being aware of this circumstance, 

 use this juice for poisoning the rain pools and small 

 vleys, which results in their killing large numbers of 

 antelopes and zebras annually. 



Having thus given a brief description of the 

 principal, and, at Home, least known, trees that pre- 

 vail about my camp, so as to enable the reader to 

 have a good idea of its surroundings, we will suppose 

 it to be that time in the morning when darkness is 

 giving place to daylight. Lighter and lighter as it 

 becomes in the east, so the surroundings become more 

 clearly defined, till the numerous details that constitute 

 my camp equipage are revealed. The lumbering Cape 

 waggon, with its snow-white tilt, has been so often 

 described since the Zulu war that it would be super- 

 fluous for me to do so here ; suffice it for me to say 

 that I have two, and that they are drawn up parallel 

 to each other about twelve feet apart, the interven- 

 ing space between them being covered over with a 

 large heavy canvas sail. Under this temporary roofing 

 are two or three portable chairs and a table, this 

 constituting my sitting and dining-room, but not my 



