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EVENING SCENE ON THE UMNONOTI RIVER. 
“ Where the elephant browses at peace in his wood, 
And the river-horse gambols unscared in the Hood." 
Prinolk. 
The Umnonoti is a small yet picturesque river, full of deep ponds and rocky hollows, which flows through a 
remarkably rich country between the Umvoti and the Tugala. The accompanying sketch was taken at evening, when 
a mellow and pleasant light spreads over the African landscape. Some hippopotami, or river-horses (“‘sea-cow of the 
colonists), are splashing in the still water of the pools; the luxuriant foliage along the banks of the river is unshaken 
by a breath of wind, and the leaves hang silently in the sultry air. 
It was on the banks of a similar stream, farther up the coast, that I had the opportunity of witnessing one of those 
vast flights of locusts that at certain seasons visit this portion of Africa. 
My Journal, Sept. 12th, says:—“We slept at a kraal near a river deeply shaded by spreading mimosa-trees. In 
the morning, which was very brilliant, I was astonished, on going outside the kraal, to see the entire landscape of a 
purplish brown colour—there were no green trees visible, no grass, no tobacco-plants, or shoots of ) oting maize .ill 
was wrapped, as it. were, by a thick mantle of insect life—locusts were in every direction, in myriads, in countless millions. 
'Fhe mimosa-trees that on the previous evening looked so fresh and green, were now of the same uniform puiplish eoloui 
that pervaded the whole scene, and their boughs drooped beneath the weight of locusts that was upon them. E\ei\ step 
I took I crushed numbers; they lay several inches deep upon the ground, and the Kafir children neie employed in 
gathering them for the purpose of food, impaling them on twigs, which they roasted over a fire. In the brightness of 
the early morning they were all still, but as the sun rose higher, aud the locusts began to move, the air was filled with 
them, so that they bore some resemblance to a snow-storm, with the sunlight shining on their wings. As we rode forwards 
they nearly blinded us by fluttering against our faces, and our horses trampled down multitudes at every step, through tin* 
dense cloud of locusts the sun looked dim, as through a heavy fall of snow, and this phenomenon continued for a distance 
of three miles.” The locust was a small species, about three inches long, of a purplish brown colour, and the wings tinged 
at their insertions with a pale pink. 
