14 MATABELE LAND. 
to tell you about after so long an absence, but one day 
here is almost exactly like another, and the country 
hitherto the same day by day." 
The travellers left Pretoria for Bamangwato on 
the 30th of June, and after three days' trekking to 
the north-west, crossed the Crocodile River, keeping 
for some time afterwards at no great distance from its 
banks. " On leaving the waggon, to shoot," writes 
Frank Oates on the 5th of July, " I rode up to the 
river, which is far the most beautiful thing I have 
yet seen in South Africa. Trees of various kinds 
— some resembling willows and oaks, the former in 
leaf, the latter bare — fringed the river's banks, 
which are steep. Long grass and bush grew in 
the country round, and where we outspanned at 
breakfast there was some very fine grass, tall and 
drooping, with a tassel. Here too," he concludes, 
" we got amongst plenty of birds, and to-day is the 
first that I have felt the country cease to be dis- 
appointing." 
The following day the road again continued in 
close proximity to the river. The country was level 
and covered with trees like those in a fine park, 
none of them, however, very large. The Hex and 
Eland's Rivers, tributaries to the Crocodile, were 
crossed near together the day after, and on the 12th 
a halt of twenty-four hours was made at Holfontein, 
a good watering-place upon the road, where many 
birds were met with, including parrots, doves, and 
hoopoes. Two days later the Crocodile, which had 
now for some time been lost sight of, again came in 
