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THE GREAT PLAINS OF LITAKUN. 
1 July, 
gress in agriculture ; neither of which, it will be seen, has yet quite 
reached the requisite degree of improvement. Until this shall be the 
case, none but the ruder arts can be cultivated ; and to this it follows 
as a corollary, that the introduction of a taste for better arts, would 
soon bring them to that desirable point. 
The country about our station once abounded in large mokaala 
trees (camel-thorns), till the Bachapins removed their town to the 
Kruman ; when they were cut down, for the purposes of building, and 
to clear the land for cornfields : at this time but few were standing. 
By the present state of vegetation, it appeared that the flower- 
season was either past or not yet come.* Most of the shrubs were 
without leaves, and those which still remained on some of the deci- 
duous plants, were rendered so brittle by the long continuance of dry 
weather, that they could not be handled without breaking in pieces. 
July \st. At noon we resumed the journey, and after crossing 
the Kruman which was about fifteen feet wide and a foot in depth, 
continued for the remainder of the day travelling over a boundless 
plain, generally sandy and covered with dry grass from three to four 
feet high. These plains, with here and there a little variation of 
scenery and diversity of surface, extend as far as Litakun ; and, 
possessing in some respects a pleasing character of their own, it was 
found convenient during my journey, to distinguish this portion of 
the country as the Great Plains of Litakun. They in general abound, 
to use this word with reference to Africa, in springs of excellent 
water, the situation of which is always indicated to the traveller by 
little groves of acacias ; though these trees are seen scattered in con- 
siderable number at some distance in their vicinity, or occupy those 
hollow places which receive water only in the rainy season. 
Between their present capital, and the site of their former town on 
the Kruman, the natives have had so much communication, that, by 
constantly passing to and fro, they have formed what may be called a 
Bachapin highroad. This consists of a number of footpaths wide 
* A small procumbent species of Evolvulus was here met with ; and is the first proof 
of the existence of that genus on the African continent. 
