670 FA CE OF THE COUNTRY. 



As we did not come near human habitations, and could only 

 take short stages on account of the illness of one of my men, I 

 had an opportunity of observing the expedients my party resorted 

 to in order to supply their wants. Large white edible mushrooms 

 are found on the ant-hills, and are very good. The mokuri, a 

 tuber which abounds in the Mopane country, they discovered by 

 percussing the ground with stones ; and another tuber, about the 

 size of a turnip, called " bonga," is found in the same situations. 

 It does not determine to the joints like the mokuri, and in winter 

 has a sensible amount of salt in it. A fruit called " ndongo" 

 by the Makololo, "dongolo" by the Bambiri, resembles in ap- 

 pearance a small plum, which becomes black when ripe, and is 

 good food, as the seeds are small. Many trees are known by 

 tradition, and one receives curious bits of information in asking 

 about different fruits that are met with. A tree named " sheka- 

 bakadzi" is superior to all others for making fire by friction. As 

 its name implies, women may even readily make fire by it when 

 benighted. 



The country here is covered over with well-rounded shingle 

 and gravel of granite, gneiss with much talc in it, mica schist, 

 and other rocks which we saw in situ between the Kafue and 

 Loangwa. There are great mounds of soft red sand slightly 

 coherent, which crumble in the hand with ease. The gravel and 

 the sand drain away the water so effectually that the trees are 

 exposed to the heat during a portion of the year without any 

 moisture; hence they are not large, like those on the Zambesi, 

 and are often scrubby. The rivers are all of the sandy kind, 

 and we pass over large patches between this and Tete in which, 

 in the dry season, no water is to be found. Close on our south, 

 the hills of Lokole rise to a considerable height, and beyond them 

 flows the Mazoe with its golden sands. The great numbers of 

 pot-holes on the sides of sandstone ridges, when viewed in con- 

 nection with the large banks of rolled shingle and washed sand 

 which are met with on this side of the eastern ridge, may indicate 

 that the sea in former times rolled its waves along its flanks. 

 Many of the hills between the Kafue and Loangwa have their 

 sides of the form seen in mud banks left by the tide. The pot- 

 holes appear most abundant on low gray sandstone ridges here ; 

 and as the shingle is composed of the same rocks as the hills west 



