Chap. X. ILLNESS OF DK. KIRK. 207 



the wild animals escape. We ourselves were severely bitten 

 on this pass, and so were our donkeys, but neither suffered from 



any after effects. 



Water is scarce in the Mburuma pass, except during the 

 rainy season. We however halted beside some fine springs in 

 the bed of the now dry rivulet, Podebode, which is continued 

 down to the end of the pass, and yields water at intervals in 

 pools. Here we remained a couple of days in consequence 

 of the severe illness of Dr. Kirk. He had several times been 

 attacked by fever ; and observed that when we were on the 

 cool heights he was comfortable, but when we happened to 

 descend from a high to a lower altitude, he felt chilly, though 

 the temperature in the latter case was 25° higher than it was 

 above; he had been trying different medicines of reputed 

 efficacy with a view to ascertain whether other combinations 

 might not be superior to the preparation we generally used ; 

 in halting by this water, he suddenly became blind, and un- 

 able to stand from faintness. The men, with great alacrity, 

 prepared a grassy bed, on which we laid our companion, 

 with the sad forebodings which only those who have tended 

 the sick in a wild country can realize. We feared that 

 in experimenting he had overdrugged himself ; but we gave 

 him a dose of our fever pills ; on the third day he rode the one 

 of the two donkeys that would allow itself to be mounted, 

 and on the sixth he marched as well as any of us. This case 

 is mentioned in order to illustrate what we have often 

 observed, that moving the patient from place to place is most 

 conducive to the cure; and the more pluck a man has — the 

 less he gives hi to the disease — the less likely he is to die. 



Supplied with water by the pools in the Podebode, we again 

 joined the Zambesi at the confluence of the rivulet. When 

 passing through a dry district the native hunter knows where to 



