182 EXPEDITION INTO [Chap. XXI. 



you! give me some snuff!" Winding up a little 

 acclivity, vve presently entered a grand and extensive 

 forest, with occasional open spots, which abounded, 

 to an incredible degree, with hartebeests, sassaybys, 

 onoos, and quaggas. Here, too, we saw the first 

 traces of the elephant — mimosa trees torn up by 

 the roots, and sturdy branches, which, rent from the 

 parent stock, overhung the path. Hundreds of 

 deep holes, impressed by the feet of these gigantic 

 quadrupeds during some recent heavy rain, with 

 heaps of fresh excrement, were every where to be 

 seen. Andries, who thought every animal less than 

 an elephant beneath his notice, now became frantic. 

 Stopping the w^aggon which he was leading, he 

 waved his cap aloft, threw a mass of dung into the 

 air, and huzzaed till he was hoarse. 



Arriving at the end of the forest, we again de- 

 scended, and found ourselves under one of the se- 

 condary ranges of the Cashan mountains, on the 

 bank of the Bagobone River, where we halted in a 

 meadow, having travelled twelve miles. Here again 

 the scenery was wild and romantic. The mountains 

 rose on either hand in bold majestic forms, clothed 

 in parts with luxuriant verdure — their steep rocky 

 sides besprinkled in others with occasional light 

 bushes, which enlivened the rich and varied tints 

 of the broken crags. Rugged cliffs margined the 

 bubbling river and shut in the lower prospect, whilst 

 the great range of the Cashan mountains towered 

 above them in the distance, their spiry blue summits 

 appearing to us, who had for months seen nothing 



