In estimating the amount of food necessary for these and other large animals, sufficient attention has not been paid to the kinds chosen.  The elephant, for instance, is a most dainty feeder, and particularly fond of certain sweet-tasted trees and fruits.  He chooses the mohonono, the mimosa, and other trees which contain much saccharine matter, mucilage, and gum.  He may be seen putting his head to a lofty palmyra, and swaying it to and fro to shake off the seeds; he then picks them up singly and eats them.  Or he may be seen standing by the masuka and other fruit-trees patiently picking off the sweet fruits one by one.  He also digs up bulbs and tubers, but none of these are thoroughly digested.  Bruce remarked upon the undigested bits of wood seen in their droppings, and he must have observed, too, that neither leaves nor seeds are changed by passing through the alimentary canal.  The woody fibre of roots and branches is dropped in the state of tow, the nutritious matter alone having been extracted.  This capability of removing all the nourishment, and the selection of those kinds of food which contain great quantities of mucilage and gum, accounts for the fact that herds of elephants produce but small effect upon the vegetation of a country—­quality being more requisite than quantity.  The amount of internal fat found in them makes them much prized by the inhabitants, who are all very fond of it, both for food and ointment.

After leaving the elephant valley we passed through a very beautiful country, but thinly inhabited by man.  The underlying rock is trap, and dikes of talcose gneiss.  The trap is often seen tilted on its edge, or dipping a little either to the north or south.  The strike is generally to the northeast, the direction we are going.  About Losito we found the trap had given place to hornblende schist, mica schist, and various schorly rocks.  We had now come into the region in which the appearance of the rocks conveys the impression of a great force having acted along the bed of the Zambesi.  Indeed, I was led to the belief from seeing the manner in which the rocks have been thrust away on both sides from its bed, that the power which formed the crack of the falls had given direction to the river below, and opened a bed for it all the way from the falls to beyond the gorge of Lupata.

Passing the rivulet Losito, and through the ranges of hills, we reached the residence of Semalembue on the 18th.  His village is situated at the bottom of ranges through which the Kafue finds a passage, and close to the bank of that river.  The Kafue, sometimes called Kahowhe or Bashukulompo River, is upward of two hundred yards wide here, and full of hippopotami, the young of which may be seen perched on the necks of their dams.  At this point we had reached about the same level as Linyanti.