ve their stratification, or their granitic
form, and though not covered with dense masses of climbing plants, like
those in moister eastern climates, there is still the idea conveyed that
most of the steep sides are fertile, and none give the impression of that
barrenness which, in northern mountains, suggests the idea that the bones
of the world are sticking through its skin.

The villagers reported that we were on the footsteps of a Portuguese half-
caste, who, at Senga, lately tried to purchase ivory, but, in consequence
of his having murdered a chief near Zumbo and twenty of his men, the
people declined to trade with him. He threatened to take the ivory by
force, if they would not sell it; but that same night the ivory and the
women were spirited out of the village, and only a large body of armed
men remained. The trader, fearing that he might come off second best if
it came to blows, immediately departed. Chikwanitsela, or Sekuanangila,
is the paramount chief of some fifty miles of the northern bank of the
Zambesi in this locality. He lives on the opposite, or southern side,
and there his territory is still more extensive. We sent him a present
from Senga, and were informed by a messenger next morning that he had a
cough and could not come over to see us. "And has his present a cough
too," remarked one of our party, "that it does not come to us? Is this
the way your chief treats strangers, receives their present, and sends
them no food in return?" Our men thought Chikwanitsela an uncommonly
stingy fellow; but, as it was possible that some of them might yet wish
to return this way, they did not like to scold him more than this, which
was sufficiently to the point.

Men and women were busily engaged in preparing the ground for the
November planting. Large game was abundant; herds of elephants and
buffaloes came down to the river in the night, but were a long way off by
daylight. They soon adopt this habit in places where they are hunted.

The plains we travel over are constantly varying in breadth, according as
the furrowed and wooded hills approach or recede from the river. On the
southern side we see the hill Bungwe, and the long, level, wooded ridge
Nyangombe, the first of a series bending from the S.E. to the N.W. past
the Zambesi. We shot an old pallah on the 16th, and found that the poor
animal had been visited with more than the usual share of animal
afflictions. He was stone-blind in both eyes,