374 ABUNDANCE OF LARGE GAM£ Chap. XXVIII. 



the withers. As we were in want of meat, we shot a full- 

 grown cow, and found the flesh very much like pork. While 

 detained cutting up the hippopotamus T ascended one of 

 the highest hills, called Mabue asula (stones smell badly), 

 which I found to be about 900 feet above the river. These 

 hills seemed of prodigious altitude to my men, who had been 

 accustomed only to ant-hills. The mention of mountains that 

 pierced the clouds made them draw in their breath and hold 

 their hands to their mouths. The mountains certainly look 

 high, from having abrupt sides. But I ascertained by experi- 

 ment that they are of a considerably lower altitude than the 

 top of the ridge we had left. They constitute in fact a sort of 

 low fringe on the outside of the eastern ridge, exactly as the 

 apparently high mountains of Golungo Alto form an outer 

 fringe to the western ridge. 



Semalembue intended that we should go a little to the 

 north-east, and pass through the people called Bapimpe, some 

 of whom had invited us to come that way on account of its 

 being smoother ; but feeling anxious to get back to the 

 Zambesi again, we decided to cross the hills towards its con- 

 fluence with the Kafue. The distance, which in a straight 

 line is but small, occupied three days, in consequence of the 

 precipitous character of the hills. When we came to the top 

 of the outer range of the hills we had a glorious view. At a 

 short distance below us we saw the Kafue, wending its way 

 over a forest-clad plain to the confluence, while in the back- 

 ground, on the other side of the Zambesi, lay a long range of 

 dark hills, with a line of fleecy clouds overhanging the course 

 of the river at their base. The plain below us, at the left of 

 the Kafue, had more large game on it than anywhere else I 

 had seen in Africa. Hundreds of buffaloes and zebras grazed 

 on the open spaces, and beneath the trees stood lordly ele- 

 phants feeding majestically. The number of animals was 

 quite astonishing, and made me think that I could here realize 

 an image of that time when Megatheria fed undisturbed in the 

 primeval forests. I wished that I could have photographed 

 a scene so seldom beheld, and which is destined, as guns 

 increase, to pass away from earth. When we descended we 

 found all the animals remarkably tame, being seldom dis- 

 turbed by the natives, who live in the hills and have no guns. 



