498 
GONYE—END OF WINTER. 
Chap. XXY. 
Masliauana out into the river : the rest of us sprang to the shore, 
which was only about ten yards off G-lancing back, I saw her 
come to the surface a short way off, and look to the canoe, as if 
to see if she had done much mischief. It was a female, whose 
young one had been speared the day before. No damage was 
done, except wetting person and goods. This is so unusual an 
occurrence, when the precaution is taken to coast along the shore, 
that my men exclaimed, Is the beast mad ?” There were eight 
of us in the canoe at the time, and the shake it received, shows 
the immense power of this animal in the water. 
On reaching Gronye, Mokwala the head-man having presented 
me with a tusk, I gave it to Pitsane, as he was eagerly collecting 
ivory for the Loanda market. The rocks of Gronye are reddish 
grey sandstone, nearly horizontal, and perforated by madrepores, 
the holes showmg the course of the insect ia different dhections. 
The rock itself has been impregnated with iron, and that hardened, 
forms a glaze on the surface—an appearance common to many of 
the rocks of this country. 
August 22nd .-—This is the end of winter. The trees which hne 
the banks begiu to bud and blossom; and there is some show of 
the influence of the new sap, which will soon end m buds that 
push off the old foKage by assumiug a very bright orange colom\ 
Tliis orange is so bright that I mistook it for masses of yeUow 
blossom. There is every variety of shade in the leaves, yellow, 
purple, copper, liver-colour, and even inky black. 
Having got the loan of other canoes from Mpololo, and three 
oxen as provision for the way, wliich made the number we had 
been presented with iu the Barotse valley amount to thirteen, we 
proceeded down the river towards Sesheke, and were as much 
struck as formerly with the noble river. The whole scenery is 
lovely, though the atmosphere is murky in consequence of the 
contiuuance of the smoky tinge of winter. 
This peculiar tinge of the atmosphere was observed every 
winter at Kolobeng, but it was not so observable in Londa as in 
the south, though I had always considered that it was owing to 
the extensive burnings of the grass, in which hundreds of miles of 
pasturage are annually consumed. As the quantity bmmt in the 
north is very much greater than in the south, and the smoky 
tinge of winter was not observed, some other explanation than 
