286 ' MAPOOTA RIVER. 



creatures, who were almost starving, their chief sub- 

 sistence being grass-seeds, called them gods, and 

 said, hitherto they had only been visited for the pur- 

 pose of rapine and murder. For some days pre- 

 viously the expedition had suffered much from rain, 

 but now remarked a sensible alteration in the cli- 

 mate, the days being excessively hot, and the nights 

 cold, raw, and damp. 



On the 15th they re-crossed the Ungovooma, and 

 encamped on a lake called Omvoobo, or Sea-Cow 

 Pond, near the confluence of the Ungovoomo and Pon- 

 gola Rivers. The ensuing day they travelled along the 

 banks of the latter stream, which was here flooded, 

 and slept by a large lake which they denominated 

 " Erin ;" they then crossed the Mapoota River near its 

 junction with the Pangola, and took up their abode 

 for the night on the shores of another lake called by 

 them " Killarney,'' of which they write in extreme 

 raptures. This lake is about four miles long, by three 

 or four hundred feet wide ; its waters are fresh, 

 translucent as glass, and the haunt of the alligator, 

 hippopotamus, and an innumerable variety of fish. It 

 is garlanded by splendid shrubs, and approached by 

 a lawn of the most verdant grass. The elegant spring- 

 buck (Antilope saliens vel dorsata), and a large 

 number of the same genus, sport around and drink 

 of its placid waters; but with so much to challenge 

 admiration, danger and death lurk in this apparent 

 paradise. The insidious crocodile, the dangerous 

 boa, the treacherous tiger, and a pestilential atmo- 



