DESCRIPTIVE 31 



year, notably when the marula-plum ripens 

 in August, and tempts the elephants from the 

 fastnesses of the Shupanga Forest, you may 

 see the coarse bark of the trees which compose 

 the Ntundus coated with marsh mud to a height 

 of 9 or 10 feet, where the elephants, after a 

 satisfying roll in the neighbouring swamps, 

 have rubbed themselves to get rid of as much 

 of the cUnging ooze as they conveniently 

 could. 



These plains are crossed all over with numbers 

 of game paths proceeding in aU directions, and 

 so well trodden that a stranger would often take 

 them for native made roads. For many miles you 

 may traverse the well-known, short, nutritious- 

 looking buffalo-grass, and very few miles — or 

 fractions of a mile for the matter of that — will 

 you march without finding the spoor of these 

 sporting animals, if not the beasts themselves. 

 Then, doubtless for carrying off the waters of 

 the heavy summer rains, these wide, prairie-like 

 plains are provided with numerous channels, 

 which, at the time of year when game is the 

 object of a visit, are usually dry, and enable 

 stalking to be resorted to with a prospect of 

 success which would not present itself perhaps 

 in their absence. Two rivers traverse these 

 plains, which are known to the natives as the 

 Mupa and Mungari Rivers. They are shown 

 on most maps under the names " Sangadzi " 

 and " Thornton," but whoever may originally 

 so have named them, the latter appellations 

 convey nothing to the local natives of to-day. 



