1 PREFATORY LETTER. 



flocks of water-fowl, which darkened the air ; and they at 

 length reached its left bankat thebeginningof the year(1856). 



In the hills and fine uplands through which they had 

 passed, the baobab lifted its huge limbs into the air, and 

 they saw many other trees, with which they had become 

 familiar in Loanda. Their senses were also greeted by 

 beautiful fruit-trees, which gave them healthy and refresh- 

 ing food. Many of these trees are probably of new species. 

 Once for all (including some that were seen on the south 

 bank of the Zambesi), I may mention the fruit-trees our Au- 

 thor most frequently alludes to. The moskuka with its apples 

 tasting like a pear, and " found in prodigious quantities as 

 they went along." The maneko producing a curious fruit 

 with a horny rind; the interior filled with glutinous juice 

 and sweet like sugar. The masuka in some places covers the 

 ground and yields a pleasant fruit, which gave them a con- 

 stant supply of food: and the molondo, sl smaller allied spe- 

 cies, had a delicious fruit. The mokorojiga, a forest-tree 

 producing a dark plum, with purple juice, which is eagerly 

 devoured by the elephants, and by the Natives who call it 

 " pure fat." It is at once wholesome and delicious. The 

 Author also found, on the north bank of the Zambesi, mango- 

 trees and tamarinds in abundance. The fruit is collected for 

 the Chiefs; but the trees are not propagated or cultivated. 

 He saw also the motondo, resembling a tamarind. It is a 

 useful timber-tree, and yields a good fruit as large as a 

 walnut. He also mentions a species of gigantic fig-tree : 

 but I must leave this subject — a glorious one for the bota- 

 nists of the new expedition. 



The soil among the glades and lawns of the delicious 

 uplands is spangled with flowers. Among them he describes 

 the zebra-hoof — a flower as white as the snow-drop, which 

 droops and dies day by day in the sun, and is renewed by a 

 fresh crop of blossoms every morning. The ground seems 

 quite alive with the stridulous piercing notes of crickets and 



