GIGANTIC BAOBAB TREES. 145 
On March 2d, leaving the waggons by the river, 
the party started for a few days' hunting in the bush, 
taking with them a couple of pack -oxen. After 
following the river for some distance nearly south, 
they entered some very pretty country, characteristic 
of the best South African scenery — rugged kopjes 
and thick bush, the kopjes rising round on every 
side, and stretching far into the distance. Here, 
crossing the river, they encamped their first night, 
advancing the following morning in an easterly 
direction several miles. In the course of this after- 
noon (March 3d), some trees of unusual size were 
noticed by some of the party whilst riding in pur- 
suit of eland. " The first which arrested my atten- 
tion," writes Frank Oates, who was one of this 
number, " was so striking that I let the others go 
on following the spoor, and reined in my horse. 
The tree was perfectly gigantic in girth, thicken- 
ing as it got higher, though of no great height. 
It was swollen and bloated in a most extraordinary 
manner, and is of the same kind as the ' Indunas' 
tree' — a baobab. Though still flourishing, it is a 
mere shell, and, looking in at a hole in the side, I 
saw that it was open to the sky at the top. Inside 
was a good-sized chamber, strewed with minute 
bones of rats or some small mammalia. No doubt 
generations of owls have long had their abode here ; 
one flew out on our approach. We saw another 
tree afterwards, probably as large, but I did not ride 
up to it." 
After this the same general direction was again 
