572 IMPROVED HEALTH : THE REASON. Chap. XXVIII. 



insect magnified ; and No. 3 shows the magnified proboscis and 

 poison-bulb at the root. 



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 travelling. In Londa we braved 

 the rain, and as I despised being carried in our frequent passage 

 through running water, I was pretty constantly drenched; but 

 now, when we saw a storm coming, we invariably halted. The 

 men soon pulled grass sufficient to make a little shelter for them- 

 selves by placing it on a bush, and having got my camp-stool and 

 umbrella, with a little grass under my feet, I kept myself perfectly 

 dry. We also lighted large fires, and the men were not chilled by 

 streams of water running down their persons, and abstracting the 

 heat, as they would have been had they been exposed to the rain. 

 When it was over, they warmed themselves by the fires, and we 

 travelled on comfortably. The effect of this care was, that we had 

 much less sickness than with a smaller party in journeying to 

 Loanda. Another improvement made from my experience, was 

 avoiding an entire change of diet. In going to Loanda I took 

 little or no European food, in order not to burden my men and 

 make them lose spirit, but trusted entirely to what might be got 

 by the gun, and the liberality of the Balonda ; but on this journey 

 I took some flour which had been left in the waggon, with some 

 got on the island, and baked my own bread all the way in an 

 extemporaneous oven made by an inverted pot. With these 

 precautions, aided, no doubt, by the greater healthiness of the 

 district over which we passed, I enjoyed perfect health. 



When we left the Chiponga on the 30th we passed along the 

 range of hills on our left, which are composed of mica and 

 clay-slate. At the bottom we found a forest of large silicified 

 trees, all lying as if the elevation of the range had made them 

 fall away from it, and towards the river. An ordinary-sized tree, 

 standing on end, measured 22 inches in diameter: there were 

 12 laminae to the inch. These are easily counted, because there 

 is usually a scale of pure silica between each, which has not been 



