Chap. XVIII.] SOUTHERN AFRICA. 153 



hung with festoons of flowering creepers, heightened 

 the effect, screening with their soft and feathery 

 foliage considerable portions of the refreshing 

 sward, across which troops of querulous pintadoes 

 and herds of graceful pallahs* were to be seen 

 hurrying from our approach. 



As we threaded the mazes of the parasol -topped 

 acacias, which completely excluded the sun's rays, 

 a peep of the river itself was unexpectedly obtained. 

 A deep and shaded channel, about twenty yards in 

 breadth, with precipitous banks overgrown with 

 reeds, was lined with an unbroken tier of willows. 

 These extended their drooping branches so as 

 nearly to entwine, had they not been forbidden by 

 the force of the crystal current, which swayed them 

 with it as it foamed and bubbled over the pebbly 

 bottom. A plain on the opposite side, bounded by 

 a low range of blue hills, was dotted over with 

 mokaala trees, beneath which troops of gnoos, 

 sassaybys, and hartebeests, were reposing. 



We drew up the waggons on a verdant spot on 

 the river bank, at a convenient distance from an ex- 

 tensive kraal constructed on the slope. Although 

 the sun shone, the cold occasioned by a dry cutting 

 wind was scarcely to be endured, even with the as- 

 sistance of a great coat ; and the inhabitants being 

 clamorous for food, I readily placed myself under 

 the guidance of their chief with ten of his men, and 

 diving into the heart of the extensive groves, soon 

 furnished them with the carcass of a black rhinoceros 



* Antilope Melampus. Delineated in the Africau Views. 



H5 



