To these were added great numbers of the fruit which yields a variety of the nux vomica, from which we derive that virulent poison strychnia.  The pulp between the nuts is the part eaten, and it is of a pleasant juicy nature, having a sweet acidulous taste.  The fruit itself resembles a large yellow orange, but the rind is hard, and, with the pips and bark, contains much of the deadly poison.  They evince their noxious qualities by an intensely bitter taste.  The nuts, swallowed inadvertently, cause considerable pain, but not death; and to avoid this inconvenience, the people dry the pulp before the fire, in order to be able the more easily to get rid of the noxious seeds.

A much better fruit, called mobola, was also presented to us.  This bears, around a pretty large stone, as much of the fleshy part as the common date, and it is stripped off the seeds and preserved in bags in a similar manner to that fruit.  Besides sweetness, the mobola has the flavor of strawberries, with a touch of nauseousness.  We carried some of them, dried as provisions, more than a hundred miles from this spot.

The next fruit, named mamosho (mother of morning), is the most delicious of all.  It is about the size of a walnut, and, unlike most of the other uncultivated fruits, has a seed no larger than that of a date.  The fleshy part is juicy, and somewhat like the cashew-apple, with a pleasant acidity added.  Fruits similar to those which are here found on trees are found on the plains of the Kalahari, growing on mere herbaceous plants.  There are several other examples of a similar nature.  Shrubs, well known as such in the south, assume the rank of trees as we go to the north; and the change is quite gradual as our latitude decreases, the gradations being herbaceous plants, shrubs, bushes, small, then large trees.  But it is questionable if, in the cases of mamosho, mobola, and mawa, the tree and shrub are identical, though the fruits so closely resemble each other; for I found both the dwarf and tree in the same latitude.  There is also a difference in the leaves, and they bear at different seasons.

The banks of the river were at this time appearing to greater advantage than before.  Many trees were putting on their fresh green leaves, though they had got no rain, their lighter green contrasting beautifully with the dark motsouri, or moyela, now covered with pink plums as large as cherries.  The rapids, having comparatively little water in them, rendered our passage difficult.  The canoes must never be allowed to come broadside on to the stream, for, being flat-bottomed, they would, in that case, be at once capsized, and every thing in them be lost.  The men work admirably, and are always in good humor; they leap into the water without the least hesitation, to save the canoe from being caught by eddies or dashed against the rocks.  Many parts were now quite shallow, and it required great address and power in balancing themselves to keep the vessel free from rocks, which