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Annals of the Transvaal Museum. 
and windy inside that it was impossible to do any delicate work. In the 
meantime, two men, whom we had sent out to get information about elephants 
and elands, returned and reported that about four hours east elands were to 
be found, as well as sable antelope and koodoo, whilst elephant spoor was 
plentiful. 
We decided to leave Mr. Van Dam at Mazammbo with the wagons so that 
he could devote all his time to the collecting of small mammals, plants, etc., 
and the other party proceed to the place indicated by the guides. 
On the 18th July we started with a considerable number of carriers 
to the land of promise, and arrived wet through at the kraal of Magulele, 
situated about 14 miles to the east. It had again begun to rain, and a spell 
of such cold weather set in that it was impossible to go out without serious 
risk of catching a chill. However, it did not prevent the taxidermist, my 
son, and some of the native hunters from taking the risk, as food was extremely 
scarce and mealie meal unobtainable. Fortunately, they shot two wildebeeste 
and an eland, but had to pay for their recklessness with a severe attack of fever. 
The rain poured down for five days, the cold was intense, and even in the hut 
of the chief next to the fire we could hardly keep warm. 
On the 23rd the clouds began to disperse, but it remained intensely cold 
and the forest was still too wet to go out shooting. 
The next day the native hunters and my son secured four koodoos. 
Mr. Noome was seriously ill. After the skins had been prepared I considered 
it necessary to go back to Mazammbo. The spoor of a large elephant bull (2' 1" 
diameter) had been followed up for two days, but we saw the impossibility of 
transporting the skin through this wilderness and gave up altogether the idea 
of securing an elephant. 
As the taxidermist was suffering from fever the journey back to Mazammbo 
had to be done in two stages. First of all we camped at one of these beautiful 
pools, about three miles from Magulele. Here we secured two fine sable antelopes, 
and a good number of butterflies, mo s tty Acrea zetes acara and Pardopsis 
punctatissima. After a stay of three days we left for Mazammbo and reached 
it on 29th July. 
Amongst the plants collected here the Crozophorct plicata, a Euphorbiacaea , 
is worth mentioning, as Mazammbo seems to be its most southern locality. 
It belongs to the tropical flora, and, indeed, Mazammbo is situated almost on 
the tropic of Capricorn. The identification was done by the Kew authorities ; 
according to its description in the tropical flora, the plant must be prostrate. 
The specimens which I collected v r ere, however, far from prostrate — they wvre 
nice erect shrubs. The only place where I found them was in some old lands, 
between the village and the river. I had also noticed that some natives made 
a very good quality of rope from the bark of a tree. On inquiry the tree was 
shown to me, and fortunately it was bearing flowers whilst still having some 
fruit left, hence the identification could not go beyond the genus ; it was a 
Sterculia, a tree growing about 20 feet high, fairly scarce near Mazammbo, 
but abundant near Mananga. Our return journey was not characterized by 
any specialty noteworthy points, except at the junction of Limpopo and 
Elephants Rivers, where we succeeded in killing a large male hippopotamus. 
This necessitated a day’s stay at this place and gave me an opportunity to 
collect a good many butterflies, amongst which two fine Eronia thalassina Bsd. 
and a few plants, nearly all Capparidaceae. 
As a general remark, I should like to state that insect life had decreased 
in July, not only in specimens but also in species. The genus Teracolus 
especially was much less predominant, and nearly all the Lycaenids had 
disappeared. 
