■^^^^^^•J A TEDIOUS MARCH. 



42: 



1875. 



ly stars, and boiled my thermometer to ascertain our height Nove.bc. 

 aoove tne sea. ° 



When day had dawned, I saw on the other side of the plain -i 

 range of sterile-looking mountains, which we reached after two 

 hours marching across the broken level. 



On the right of the entrance to a pass there was a precipitous 

 bluff, with great masses of rock - balanced like the Cornish 

 rocking-stones— perched upon its summit. On the left on the 

 opposite side of a deep ravine, with a rapid stream flowing 

 through It, were enormous dome-like mounts apparently formed 

 of single masses of smooth granite. Their surface was washed 

 clean by the rains, and they were devoid of vegetation, except- 

 ing a few cacti which had taken root in slight fissures near the 

 summit. Farther down the pass were other masses, many of 

 which had the appearance of bastions of some Titan forts. 



Our path was along the northern side of this pass, over sheets 

 of steep and slippery granite divided from each other by patch- 

 es of thorny scrub, with rills draining down to join the stream 

 we heard murmuring in the deptlis of the gorge hundreds of 

 feet below us. 



At times we were obliged to clamber over huge masses of 

 stone on our hands and knees ; at others to descend into the 

 gorge to avoid some giant block jutting out beyond the path ; 

 and then to clamber again to our old level with the assistance 

 of the creepers which grew in the crevices. 



Graves and numerous skeletons testified to the numbers 

 whose lives had been sacrificed on this trying march, while 

 slave clogs and forks, still attached to some bleached bones or 

 lying by their sides, gave only too convincing a proof that the 

 demon of the slave-trade still exerted his influence in this part 

 of Africa. 



Clogs and forks were also hanging on trees, some being so 

 slightly affected by the weather that it was evident they had 

 not been there longer than a month or two. Doubtless they 

 had been removed from some flagging wretches in the belief 

 that weakness of body had extinguished all idea of escape, and 

 in the hope that the strength Avhich was insufticient to bear the 

 weight of the clog might still prove enough to drag tlie unfort- 

 unate human chattel to the coast. 



