ajima, contains both alligators and hippopotami.
We crossed it by means of canoes. Here, as on the slopes down to the
Quilo and Chikapa, we had an opportunity of viewing the geological
structure of the country--a capping of ferruginous conglomerate, which
in many parts looks as if it had been melted, for the rounded nodules
resemble masses of slag, and they have a smooth scale on the surface;
but in all probability it is an aqueous deposit, for it contains
water-worn pebbles of all sorts, and generally small. Below this
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