342 ACROSS AFRICA. [Chap- 



June, "fiend stream," a name it well merited. It rushed along the 

 1875. bottom of a deep chasm in the sandstone rocks only about 

 twenty yards wide, from which light was excluded by the inter- 

 laced branches of the trees growing on both banks, forming a 

 canopy impenetrable to the rays of the sun. Peering down 

 from above, all seemed dark as Erebus. For the first few feet 

 the sides were covered with ferns, and then they went sheer 

 down for some fifty feet to the dark and roaring torrent, 

 marked by flashing foam where rocks checked its impetuous 

 course toward the Lovoi. 



In the forests there were numerous very fine trees, among 

 which the mpafu stood pre-eminent in its great size and beaut3^ 

 Some trees had four or five large buttress - like projections, 

 measuring about six feet at the base, and gradually tapering off 

 to about twenty feet from the ground, above which the trunk 

 ran up in a clean cylindrical form to the height of seventy or 

 eighty feet before branching out. 



Owing to our lengthy halt, my men were entirely unfit for 

 much marching. Ten soon became unable to bear their loads, 

 and one was so ill that he was obliged to be carried. They as- 

 cribed their illness to the impure water at Totela. I imagine, 

 however, that very little water was drunk by them while there ; 

 for pombe and palm-wine were plentiful, and nearly every one 

 had friends among the natives who gave them any amount of 

 liquor. Curiously enough, the wdiole of those I had sent to 

 Kanyoka were among the sick. 



Leaving the hill country, we came to a succession of level 

 "plains, which must be almost impassable swamj)s in the rainy 

 season, and were still damp and oozy, and marked with large 

 pits caused by the passage of elephants. In some places their 

 tracks were quite fresh, and, to judge from the amount of dam- 

 age done to trees and shrubs, and the manner in which the 

 country was trampled about — all footpaths being obliterated — 

 the herds must sometimes have numbered over five hundred 

 beasts. 



We had to cross many streams flowing through small un- 

 dulations between the plains, often bordered by swamps a mile 

 wide. Of these the N jivi was especially difiicult. Wood grew 

 on each side, and the river banks were lined with fallen trunks 



