THE 'IND UNAS' TREE: 83 



rambles from this camp : — "Started about 7.30 a.m., 

 and walked nearly three hours, first through the thin 

 then through the thick bush, striking a path during 

 the walk which we followed to the south-west, and 

 which brought us out under a huge spreading baobab, 

 the largest tree I have yet seen since leaving Pieter- 

 maritzburg. They call it the 'indunas' tree,' for 

 here the indunas from the neighbouring kraals are 

 wont to sit and drink beer when anything particular 

 is on hand. The huge trunk is blackened all round 

 with fire, but the tree seems uninjured and spreads 

 its huge canopy from a framework of crooked boughs 

 like a gigantic oak. Stretching my arms round the 

 tree at the height at which I stand from the ground, 

 it took me four times, all but about a foot, to encircle 

 it — say about twenty-three feet for its girth here ; 

 but below this it is much more, as it increases 

 towards the roots. Other trees of the same kind 

 stand about, but they are less. A splendid view, 

 such as recalls Wharfedale to the mind, here suddenly 

 bursts in sight. The Umvungu River flows in the 

 valley ; at our backs is the thick bush, through which 

 we have come ; but before us stretches the green 

 vista of woods far away, till it becomes blue in the 

 distance. We waited here about two hours, and re- 

 turned as we had come." 



In this way the whole surrounding district was 

 gradually traversed. The weather during the stay 

 at the present camp was already beginning to be 

 wet, and there was no improvement in this respect, 

 but the reverse, from that date. On the 27th, 



