A PLEASANT BIVOUAC. 



245 



a long trot, which, after lasting a hundred yards, led to 

 an inevitable fall of the load. Before emerging from 

 Ugogi, the road wound over a grassy country, thickly 

 speckled with calabashes. Square Tembe appeared on 

 both sides, and there was no want of flocks and herds. 

 As the villages and fields were left behind, the land be- 

 came a dense thorny jungle, based upon a sandy red soil. 

 The horizon was bounded on both sides by gradually- 

 thinning lines of lumpy outlying hill, the spurs of the 

 Rubeho Range, that extended, like a scorpion's claws, 

 westward ; and the plain, gently falling in the same 

 direction, was broken only by a single hill-shoulder 

 and by some dwarf descents. As we advanced through 

 the shades — a heavy cloud-bank had shut out the 

 crescent moon — our difficulties increased ; thorns and 

 spiky twigs threatened the eyes ; the rough and rugged 

 road led to many a stumble, and the frequent whine of 

 the cynhysena made the asses wild with fear. None but 

 Bombay came out to meet us ; the porters were overpow- 

 ered by their long march under the fiery sun. About 

 8 p.m., directed by loud shouts and flaring fires, we 

 reached a kraal, a patch of yellow grass, offering clear 

 room in the thorny thicket. That night was the perfec- 

 tion of a bivouac, cool from the vicinity of the hills, 

 genial from their shelter, and sweet as forest-air in 

 these regions ever is. 



On the next day we resumed our labour betimes : 

 for a dreary and thirsty stage lay before us. Toiling 

 through the sunshine of the hot waste I could not but 

 remark the strange painting of the land around. At 

 a distance the plain was bright-yellow with stubble, 

 and brown-black with patches of leafless wintry jungle 

 based upon a brick-dust soil. A closer approach dis- 

 closed colours more vivid and distinct. Over the 



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