272 AI 'ENTURES IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



On the following morning, which w^as the 1st of July 

 wo inspanned at dawn of day, and late in the after 

 noon we reached Lesausau, having performed an ex- 

 tremely arduous and fatiguing march. Our ruute dur- 

 ing the greater part of the day lay through dense jun- 

 gle and thorny thickets, where it was necessary to clear 

 a way with our axes before the wagons could pass. 

 The ground also w^as in many places extremely rocky, 

 and threatened the destruction of my wheels and axle- 

 trees, causing us much labor, it being indispensable to 

 remove the masses of rock to one side. As w^e neared 

 Lesausau, we entered upon a broad level strath, adorned 

 throughout its length and breadth with a variety of pic- 

 turesque acacia and other trees, which stood at intervals 

 as if they had been planted by the hand of man. On 

 either side, the mountains rose abruptly /rom the plain, 

 and they now assumed a very bold and striking appear- 

 ance, their sides and summits consisting of huge masses 

 of rock piled one above another, some of which seemed 

 so balanced upon their exalted and narrow pedestals, 



" As if an infant's touch could urge 

 Their headlong passage down tlie verge." 



A hght and feathery fringe of dwarfish trees and va- 

 rieties of gigantic cacti adorned the sides and upper 



enriching myself in following my favorite pursuit of elephant hunting, 

 I was feeding and making happy the starving families of hundreds of 

 the Bechuana and Bakalahari tribes, who invariably followed my wag 

 ens, and assisted me in my hunting, in numbers varying from fifty to 

 two hundred at a time. These men were often accompanied by their 

 wives and families, and when an elephant, hippopotamus, or other large 

 animal was slain, all hands repaired to the spot, when every inch of the 

 animal was reduced to biltongue, viz., cut into long narrow strips, and 

 hung in festoons upon poles, and dried in the sun: even the entrails 

 were not left for the vultures and hyamas, and the very bones were 

 chopped to pieces with their hatchets to obtain the marrow, with which 

 they enriched their soup. 



