616 
GRAPES-^THE UB. 
Chap. XXX. 
drinks any amount without fear. I never felt the atmosphere so 
steamy as on the low-lying lands of the Zambesi, and yet it was 
becoming cooler than it was on the highlands. 
We crossed the rivulets Kapopo and Ue, now running, but 
usually dry. There are great numbers of wild grape-vines 
growing in this quarter; indeed they abound everywhere along 
the banks of the Zambesi. In the Batoka country there is a 
variety wliich yields a black grape of considerable sweetness. 
The leaves are very large and harsh, as if capable of withstanding 
the rays of this hot sun; but the most common kinds—one with 
a round leaf and a greenish grape, and another with a leaf closely 
resembling that of the cultivated varieties, and with dark or 
purple fruit—have large seeds, which are strongly astringent and 
render it a disagreeable fruit. The natives eat all the varieties; 
and I tasted vinegar made by a Portuguese from these grapes. 
Probably a country which yields the wild vines so very abundantly, 
might be a fit one for the cultivated species. At this part of 
tlie journey so many of the vines had run across the little foot¬ 
path we followed, that one had to be constantly on the watch to 
avoid being tripped. The ground was covered with rounded 
shingle, which was not easily seen among the grass. Pedestrian- 
ism may be all very well for those whose obesity requires much 
exercise, but for one who was becoming as thin as a lath, through 
the constant perspmation caused by marcliing day after day in 
the hot sun, the only good I saw in it was, that it gave an honest 
sort of man a vivid idea of the treadmill. 
Although the rains were not quite over, great numbers of pools 
were drpng up, and the ground was in many parts covered with 
small, gTeen, cryptogamous plants, which gave it a mouldy 
appearance and a strong smell. As we sometimes pushed aside 
the masses of rank vegetation which hung over our path, we felt 
a sort of hot blast on our faces. Everything looked unwhole¬ 
some, but we had no fever. The Ue fiows between high banks 
of a soft red sandstone streaked with white, and pieces of tufa. 
The crumbling sandstone is evidently alluvial, and is cut into, 
12 feet deep. In tliis region, too, we met with pot-holes, six feet 
deep and three or four in diameter. In some cases they form 
convenient wells; in others they are full of earth; and in others 
still, the people have made them into graves for their chiefs. 
