36 
NATURAL HISTORY JOTTINGS IN NATAL. 
Feb., 1892 . 
To me the chief difficulty is to find time to study, be it 
ever so superficially, the countless wonderful sights of Nature 
with which we are surrounded here. We have no all but 
impenetrable forests such as Stanley had to cut through, but 
the beauty of our “ bush ” in its virgin state is hard to describe. 
Along our coast we have no trees of any great height, but 
from the fig trees with their massive gnarled trunks and wide 
spreading branches that almost shut out the daylight from 
above, and add so much to the stillness that seems to pervade 
the woods—a stillness that is only broken by the harsh cry 
of some bird, or by a rustle in the grass or undergrowth— 
to the lovely fresh green of the “ Flat-crown Acacia,” there is 
every shade of green. These fig trees, with their small, deep 
green leaves, form a background that serves to show up in 
contrast the pale green of this delicate leaved “ flat-crown,” 
with its burden of sweet-scented flowers and its network of 
leaves interposed like a mantle of lace of an indescribable 
pattern between you and the sunlight above. 
Of course, there are many other kinds of trees and shrubs, 
but what gives to the whole a wild and tropical appearance 
are the creepers that twine around the tree trunks and 
branches, and from there trail down in festoons of greenery, 
or long bare prickly stems that hang like snakes from tree to 
tree. Amongst the trees grow bushes ablaze with flowers and 
bright with berries, whose colour tempts but whose taste repels, 
and around these again spring up the weeds and grasses as 
though to complete the confusion. Through all this tangled 
mass there are numerous Kafir tracks that seem to meander 
about as though they would lead you nowhere, and yet are 
really the short cuts so much favoured by the Kafirs, by 
whom they are made as they walk in single file from place to 
place. These very twists and turns are made but to avoid 
some thorny bush or fallen tree; and although one may 
manage to strike a straighter line, it will, in all probability, 
end in more scratches to the hands and rents in the clothes 
than the lessened distance has been worth. 
From time to time an open space will be found where, 
although the low bushes are pretty numerous, there are no 
large trees, and it is in these spots that the swarm of insect 
life becomes almost bewildering. I can never forget my first 
day with the net in the bush, and after collecting here it 
would seem very tame work to be at home again in England, 
and go out day after day only to be able to boast of having 
seen a “ new one.” 
I went out just beyond the town and commenced business 
with the intention of catching all I saw, but came away with 
the firm belief that I had seen more than I could ever catch. 
