chap, vii.] HERBS OF THE LATOOKAS AND GAME. 259 
thunder roared and echoed from rock to rock across 
the plain. 
The Latookas assured me that at the foot of those 
mountains there were elephants and giraffes in abun¬ 
dance ; accordingly, I determined to make a recon¬ 
naissance of the country. 
On the following morning I started on horseback, 
with two of my people mounted, and a native guide, 
and rode through the beautiful valley of Latooka to 
the foot of the range. The first five or six miles were 
entirely de-pastured by the enormous herds of the 
Latookas who were driven to that distance from the 
towns daily, all the country in the immediate vicinity 
being dried up. The valley was extremely fertile, but 
totally unoccupied and in a state of nature, being a 
wilderness of open plains, jungles, patches of forest and 
gullies, that although dry evidently formed swamps 
during the wet season. When about eight miles from 
the town we came upon tracks of the smaller antelopes, 
which, although the weakest, are the most daring in 
approaching the habitations of man. A few miles 
farther on, we saw buffaloes and hartebeest, and shortly 
came upon tracks of giraffes. Just at this moment the 
inky clouds that as usual had gathered over Tarrangolle 
came circling around us, and presently formed so dense 
a canopy that the darkness was like a partial eclipse. 
S 2 
