The distances from top to top of the ridges may be about 10 Deg. of longitude, or 600 geographical miles.  I can not hear of a hill on either ridge, and there are scarcely any in the space inclosed by them.  The Monakadze is the highest, but that is not more than a thousand feet above the flat valley.  On account of this want of hills in the part of the country which, by gentle undulations, leads one insensibly up to an altitude of 5000 feet above the level of the sea, I have adopted the agricultural term ridges, for they partake very much of the character of the oblong mounds with which we are all familiar.  And we shall yet see that the mountains which are met with outside these ridges are only a low fringe, many of which are not of much greater altitude than even the bottom of the great central valley.  If we leave out of view the greater breadth of the central basin at other parts, and speak only of the comparatively narrow part formed by the bend to the westward of the eastern ridge, we might say that the form of this region is a broad furrow in the middle, with an elevated ridge about 200 miles broad on either side, the land sloping thence, on both sides, to the sea.  If I am right in believing the granite to be the cause of the elevation of this ridge, the direction in which the strike of the rocks trends to the N.N.E. may indicate that the same geological structure prevails farther north, and two or three lakes which exist in that direction may be of exactly the same nature with Lake Ngami, having been diminished to their present size by the same kind of agency as that which formed the falls of Victoria.

We met an elephant on the Kalomo which had no tusks.  This is as rare a thing in Africa as it is to find them with tusks in Ceylon.  As soon as she saw us she made off.  It is remarkable to see the fear of man operating even on this huge beast.  Buffaloes abound, and we see large herds of them feeding in all directions by day.  When much disturbed by man they retire into the densest parts of the forest, and feed by night only.  We secured a fine large bull by crawling close to a herd.  When shot, he fell down, and the rest, not seeing their enemy, gazed about, wondering where the danger lay.  The others came back to it, and, when we showed ourselves, much to the amusement of my companions, they lifted him up with their horns, and, half supporting him in the crowd, bore him away.  All these wild animals usually gore a wounded companion, and expel him from the herd; even zebras bite and kick an unfortunate or a diseased one.  It is intended by this instinct that none but the perfect and healthy ones should propagate the species.  In this case they manifested their usual propensity to gore the wounded, but our appearance at that moment caused them to take flight, and this, with the goring being continued a little, gave my men the impression that they were helping away their wounded companion.  He was shot between the fourth and fifth ribs; the ball passed through