522 A CURIOUS BIRD. 



Mouse's sister conducted us a mile or two upon the road. 

 On parting, she said that she had forwarded orders to a 

 distant village, to send food to the point where we should 

 sleep. In expressing her joy at the prospect of living in 

 peace, she said it would be so pleasant " to sleep without 

 dreaming of anyone pursuing them with a spear.'" 

 I In our front we had ranges of hills called Chamai, covered 

 with trees. We crossed the rivulet Nakachinta, flowing 

 westwards into the Kafue, and then passed over ridges of 

 rocks of the same mica schist which we found so abundant 

 in Golungo Alto ; here they were surmounted by reddish 

 porphyry and finely laminated felspathic grit with trap. 

 The dip. however, of these rocks, is not towards the centre 

 of the continent as in Angola, for ever since we passed the 

 masses of granite on the Kalomo, the rocks, chiefly of mica 

 schist, dip away from them, taking an easterly direction. 

 A decided change of dip occurs again when we come near 

 the Zambesi, as will be noticed further on. The hills which 

 flank that river, now appeared on our right as a high 

 dark range, while those near the Kafue, have the aspect 

 of a low blue range, with openings between. We crossed 

 two never-failing rivulets also flowing into the Kafue. 

 The country is very fertile, but vegetation is nowhere 

 rank. The boiling point of water being 204 , showed 

 that we were not yet as low down as Linyanti ; but we 

 had left the masuka-trees behind us, and many others 

 with which we had become familiar. A feature common 

 to the forests of Angola and Benguela, namely the pre- 

 sence of orchilla-weed and lichens on the trees, with 

 mosses on the ground, began to appear ; but we never, 

 vn any part of the eastern slope, saw the abundant crops 

 of ferns which are met with everywhere in Angola. The 

 orchilla-weed and mosses, too, were in but small quantities. 



As we passed along, the people continued to supply us 

 with food in great abundance. They had by some means 

 or other got a knowledge that I carried medicine, and 

 somewhat to the disgust of my men, who wished to keep 

 it all to themselves, brought their sick children for cure. 

 Some of them I found had whooping-cough, which is one 

 of the few epidemics that range through this country. 



In passing through the woods, I, for the first time, 

 heard the bird called Mokwa reza, or " Son-in-law of God " 

 (Micropogon sulphuratus ?), utter its cry, which is sup- 

 posed "by the natives to be " pula, pula " (rain, rain). 



