254 
TEAVELS IN CENTEAL AFEICA. 
of about eighty feet. They arose abruptly out of the plain,, and 
were crowned with beautiful trees perched fantastically on the bare 
stone. The roots of some that I examined pass deeply between 
the fissures^ or, exposed to view, run perpendicularly down fa9ades 
of rocks for considerable distances, then disappear between huge 
boulders, and ultimately, doubtless, reach the earth that nourishes 
these so strangely-supported trees. We lingered here one half- 
hour ; again the march ; and, after the lapse of the same space of 
time, another still more interesting group of rocks lay in our path. 
Passing between some of the isolated rocks, to our surprise a group 
on the right contained within its amphitheatre a village named 
Koorjook ; the entrance to it is between two lofty perpendicular 
rocks twenty feet apart, and strongly barricaded with a stout wooden 
palisade. At its entrance a few negroes stood, apparently by no 
means rejoiced at our presence, and they rudely refused a drink 
of water. Trees flourished on the summit of the sterile eminence, 
and wild pigeons, in common with man, courted the protection of 
this fastness. A little farther on in the plain, in moderate grass, a 
delay of a quarter of an hour took place in searching for the path 
we had strayed from : a shout from the guides set us all again 
in motion. We passed a third nest of rocks; a slight descent 
over an open plain brought us to water with a muddy bottom, and 
overgrown with troublesome high grass. Here a cow, abandoned 
by the cattle-drivers in advance, was sticking in the mud : the 
negroes would have cut it up alive, but a pistol-shot in the brain 
relieved the beast from that cruel fate. A gently rising slope con- 
ducted us into a thick and well-timbered wood on gravelly soil, and 
about noon, in a more open country, we encamped near two small 
stockades in the village named Alwal. The frightened inhabitants 
barricaded the entrance as we approached ; but soon after the 
