BEAUTIFUL SCENERY. 359 



to get back to the Zambesi again, we decided to cross the 

 hills toward its confluence with the Kafue. The distance, 

 which in a straight line is but small, occupied three days. 

 The precipitous nature of the sides of this mass of hills 

 knocked up the oxen and forced us to slaughter two, one 

 of which — a very large one, and ornamented with upward 

 of thirty pieces of its own skin detached and hanging 

 down — Sekeletu had wished us to take to the white people 

 as a specimen of his cattle. We saw many elephants among 

 the hills, and my men ran off and killed three. When we 

 came to the top of the outer range of the hills, we had a 

 glorious view. At a short distance below us we saw the 

 Kafue, wending away over a forest-clad plain to the con- 

 fluence, and on the other side of the Zambesi, beyond that, 

 lay a long range of dark hills. A line of fleecy clouds 

 appeared lying along the course of that river at their base. 

 The plain below us, at the left of the Kafue, had more large 

 game on it than anywhere else I had seen in Africa. 

 Hundreds of buffaloes and zebras grazed on the open spaces, 

 and there stood lordly elephants feeding majestically, 

 nothing moving apparently but the proboscis. I wished 

 that I had been able to take a photograph of a scene so 

 seldom beheld, and which is destined, as guns increase, to 

 pass away from earth. When we descended, we found all 

 the animals remarkably tame. The elephants stood beneath 

 the trees, fanning themselves with their large ears, as if 

 they did not see us at 200 or 300 yards' distance. The 

 number of animals was quite astonishing, and made me 

 think that here I could realize an image of that time when 

 Megatheria fed undisturbed in the primeval forests. 



We tried to leave one morning, but the rain, coming on 

 afresh, brought us to a stand, and after waiting an hour, 

 wet to the skin, we were fain to retrace our steps to our 

 sheds. These rains were from the east, and the clouds 

 might be seen on the hills exactly as the "Table-cloth" on 

 Table Mountain. This was the first wetting we had got 

 since we left Sesheke, for I had gained some experience in 



