ARRIVAL AT MOREMI. 95 



"We -were close to the reeds, and could listen to the strange 

 sounds which are often heard there. By day I had seen 

 water-snakes putting up their heads and swimming about. 

 There were great numbers of otters, (Lutra inunguis, F. 

 Guvier,) which have made little spoors all over the plains 

 m search of the fishes, among the tall grass of these flooded 

 prairies; curious birds, too, jerked and wriggled among 

 these reedy masses, and we heard human-like voices and 

 unearthly sounds, with splash, guggle, jupp, as if rare fun 

 were going on in their uncouth haunts. After a damp, 

 cold night, we set to, early in the morning, at our work of 

 exploring again, but left the pontoon in order to lighten 

 our labor. The ant-hills are here very high, some thirty 

 feci, and of a base so broad that trees grow on them; while 

 the lands, annually flooded, bear nothing but grass. From 

 one of these ant-hills we discovered an inlet to the Chobe; 

 and, having gone back for the pontoon, we launched our- 

 selves on a deep river, here from eighty to one hundred 

 yards wide. I gave my companion strict injunctions to 

 stick by the pontoon in case a hippopotamus should look 

 at us; nor was this caution unnecessary, for one came up 

 at our side and made a desperate plunge off. We had 

 passed over him. The wave he made caused the pontoon 

 to glide quickly away from him. 



We paddled on from mid-day till sunset. There was 

 nothing but a wall of reed on each bank, and we saw every 

 prospect of spending a supperless night in our float; but, 

 just as the short twilight of these parts was commencing, 

 we perceived on the north bank the village of Moremi, one 

 of the Makololo, whose acquaintance I had made on our 

 foimer visit, and who was now located on the island Ma- 

 honta, (lat. 17° 58' S., long. 24° 6' E.) The villagers looked 

 as we may suppose people do who see a ghost, and in their 

 figurative way of speaking said, " He has dropped among 

 us from the clouds, yet came riding on the back of a hip- 

 popotamus ! "We Makololo thought no one could cross the 



