ACROSS THE COUNTRY. 391 



journey of Dr. Kirk across the country, comparatively short, 

 was accomplished with great difficulty and extreme suffering. 

 It was the season of the year when there is the greatest scarcity 

 of water, and the little to be found by digging in the beds of 

 dry watercourses was so brackish that it increased the thirst 

 which they sought to allay ; and when, at long intervals, that 

 chanced to be found which was less brackish, it had already be- 

 come the resort of large game whose unscrupulous habits of 

 wallowing in the mud left only the choice of a filthy draught 

 for a salt one. The country was level, and large tracts of it 

 were covered with mopane trees, whose small leaves afforded no 

 shelter from the scorching rays of the sun, which burnt off the 

 grass and baked the earth. The heat was so great that the men 

 frequently jumped from the path in the vain hope of cooling 

 their scorched feet. The fat was melted away from the salt pork 

 which was carried by one of the natives, and only the fibre of 

 the meat remained. But even this path was hardly known at 

 Tete before it became the highway along which merciless traders 

 drove their human cattle toward a market. 



20 



