572 
IMPEOVED HEALTH: THE KEASON. Chap. XXVIH. 
insect magnified; and No. 3 shows the magnified proboscis and 
poison-bnlb at the root. 
We tried to leave one morning, but the rain coming on 
afresh brought us to a stand, and after waiting an hour, wet 
to the skin, we were fain to retrace our steps to our sheds. 
These rains were from the east, and the clouds might be seen 
on the liills, exactly as the “ Table-cloth ” on Table Mountain. 
This was the first wetting we had got since we left Sesheke, for I 
had gained some experience in travelling. In Londa we braved 
the rain, and as I despised being carried in our frequent passage 
through running water, I was pretty constantly drenched; but 
now, when we saw a storm coming, we invariably halted. The 
men soon pulled grass sufficient to make a little shelter for them¬ 
selves by placing it on a bush, and having got my camp-stool and 
umbrella, with a little grass under my feet, I kept myself perfectly 
dry. We also lighted large fires, and the men were not chilled by 
streams of water running down their persons, and abstracting the 
heat, as they would have been had they been exposed to the rain. 
When it was over, they warmed themselves by the fires, and we 
travelled on comfortably. The effect of this care was, that we had 
much less sickness than with a smaller party in journeymg to 
Ijoanda. Another improvement made from my experience, was 
avoiding an entire change of diet. In going to Loanda I took 
little or no European food, in order not to burden my men and 
make them lose spirit, but trusted entffely to what might be got 
by the gun, and the liberality of the Balonda; but on tliis journey 
I took some flour which had been left in the waggon, with some 
got on the island, and baked my own bread all the way in an 
extemporaneous oven made by an inverted pot. With these 
precautions, aided, no doubt, by the greater healthiness of the 
district over which we passed, I enjoyed perfect health. 
When we left the Chiponga on the 30th we passed along the 
range of hills on our left, which are composed of mica and 
clay-slate. At the bottom we found a forest of large silicified 
trees, aU lying as if the elevation of the range had made them 
fall away from it, and towards the river. An ordinary-sized tree, 
standing on end, measured 22 inches in diameter: there were 
12 laminae to the inch. These are easily counted, because there 
is usually a scale of pure silica between each, which has not been 
