mass lies a pale red hardened sandstone, and beneath that a trap-like whinstone.  Lowest of all lies a coarse-grained sandstone containing a few pebbles, and, in connection with it, a white calcareous rock is occasionally met with, and so are banks of loose round quartz pebbles.  The slopes are longer from the level country above the further we go eastward, and every where we meet with circumscribed bogs on them, surrounded by clumps of straight, lofty evergreen trees, which look extremely graceful on a ground of yellowish grass.  Several of these bogs pour forth a solution of iron, which exhibits on its surface the prismatic colors.  The level plateaus between the rivers, both east and west of the Moamba, across which we traveled, were less woody than the river glens.  The trees on them are scraggy and wide apart.  There are also large open grass-covered spaces, with scarcely even a bush.  On these rather dreary intervals between the rivers it was impossible not to be painfully struck with the absence of all animal life.  Not a bird was to be seen, except occasionally a tomtit, some of the ‘Sylviadae’ and ‘Drymoica’, also a black bird (’Dicrurus Ludwigii’, Smith) common throughout the country.  We were gladdened by the voice of birds only near the rivers, and there they are neither numerous nor varied.  The Senegal longclaw, however, maintains its place, and is the largest bird seen.  We saw a butcher-bird in a trap as we passed.  There are remarkably few small animals, they having been hunted almost to extermination, and few insects except ants, which abound in considerable number and variety.  There are scarcely any common flies to be seen, nor are we ever troubled by mosquitoes.

The air is still, hot, and oppressive; the intensely bright sunlight glances peacefully on the evergreen forest leaves, and all feel glad when the path comes into the shade.  The want of life in the scenery made me long to tread again the banks of the Zambesi, and see the graceful antelopes feeding beside the dark buffaloes and sleek elands.  Here hippopotami are known to exist only by their footprints on the banks.  Not one is ever seen to blow or put his head up at all; they have learned to breathe in silence and keep out of sight.  We never heard one uttering the snorting sound so common on the Zambesi.

We crossed two small streams, the Kanesi and Fombeji, before reaching Cabango, a village situated on the banks of the Chihombo.  The country was becoming more densely peopled as we proceeded, but it bears no population compared to what it might easily sustain.  Provisions were to be had in great abundance; a fowl and basket of meal weighing 20 lbs. were sold for a yard and a half of very inferior cotton cloth, worth not more than threepence.  An idea of the cheapness of food may be formed from the fact that Captain Neves purchased 380 lbs. of tobacco from the Bangalas for about two pounds sterling.  This, when carried into central Londa, might purchase seven thousand