SEARCH FOR ELEPHANTS. 295 



^ The country now before me was a vast level forest, 

 extending to the north and east for about twenty miles 

 without a break. At that distance, however, the land- 

 scape was shut in by blue mountain ranges of consid- 

 erable height, and two bold conical mountains standing 

 close together rose conspicuous above the rest. These 

 mountains the Bamangwato men informed me were 

 their ancient habitatiooj and that of iheir forefathers, 

 but the cruel Matabili had driven them from thence to 

 the rocky mountains which they now occupy. We 

 continued our course in an easterly directipn, and twice 

 crossed the gravelly bed of a periodical river, in which 

 .were several small springs of excellent water. These 

 springs had been exposed by elephants, which had 

 cleared away the gravel with their trunks. Around 

 these springs the spoor of rhinoceros was abundant. 

 After proceeding several miles through a dry and bar- 

 ren tract, where wait-a-bit thorns prevailed, we entered 

 upon more interesting ground. The forest was adorned 

 with very picturesque old trees of various sorts and 

 sizes, which stood singly and in shady groups, while the 

 main body of the forest consisted of a variety of trees 

 of other sorts, averaging the height of a giraffe. The 

 elephants had left abundant traces of their presence, but 

 all the marks were old. Fresh spoor of giraffe was im- 

 printed on the ground on every side, and we presently 

 saw a large herd of these, . standing scattered through 

 the forest to our left. They were glorious fellows, but 

 I was now in pursuit of nobler game : the natives were 

 leading me to some distant fountain, where they ex- 

 pected we should- discover spoor. 



On we sped through the depths of the forest, our 

 view being confined to about fifty yards on every side. 

 Presently emerging upon a small open glade, 1 observed 



