150 COMICAL CREATURES. Chap. VI. 



our much-esteemed and noble-hearted friend, the late Ad- 

 miral Washington, at home to see that we did not again 

 suffer ; but the prospect of effecting a grand work on Lake 

 Nyassa, by means of a steamer, made to be unscrewed and 

 carried past the cataracts, was so fair, — indeed it promised, if 

 carried out, so entirely to change the wretched system, which 

 has been the bane of the country for ages, — that to have 

 the vessel properly constructed we sent Mr. Rae, the engine er, 

 home to superintend its construction. He could be of no 

 further use in the "Asthmatic," as she was utterly beyond 

 cure. We sent also five boxes of specimens, carefully col- 

 lected and prepared by Dr. Kirk ; four of them, to our very 

 great sorrow and loss, never arrived at the Gardens at 

 Kew. We all accompanied our engineer on foot to a 

 small stream that runs into the Kwakwa, or river of Quil- 

 limane, on his way to that port to embark for England. 



The distance from Mazaro, on the Zambesi side, to 

 the Kwakwa at Nterra, is about six miles, over a sur- 

 prisingly rich dark soil. We passed the night in the 

 long shed, erected at Nterra, on the banks of this river, for 

 the use of travellers, who have often to wait several days 

 for canoes; we tried to sleep, but the mosquitoes and rats 

 Avere so troublesome as to render sleep impossible. The 

 rats, or rather large mice, closely resembling Mus pumilio 

 (Smith), of this region, are quite facetious, and, having a great 

 deal of fun in them, often laugh heartily. Again and again 

 they woke us up by scampering over our faces, and then 

 bursting into a loud laugh of He ! he ! he ! at having per- 

 formed the feat. Their sense of the ludicrous appears to 

 be exquisite ; they screamed with laughter at the attempts, 

 which disturbed and angry human nature made in the dark 

 to brino- their ill-timed merriment to a close. Unlike their 



