when we leave it we turn southwards,
having a double range of lofty mountains on our left. These are
granitic in form, the nearer range being generally the lowest, and
covered with scraggy trees; the second, or more easterly, is some 6000
feet above the sea, bare and rugged, with jagged peaks shooting high
into the air. This is probably the newest range. The oldest people
have felt no earthquake, but some say that they have heard of such
things from their elders.

We passed very many sites of old villages, which are easily known by
the tree euphorbia planted round an umbelliferous one, and the sacred
fig. One species here throws out strong buttresses in the manner of
some mangroves instead of sending down twiners which take root, as is
usually the ease with the tropical fig. These, with millstones--stones
for holding the pots in cooking--and upraised clay benches, which have
been turned into brick by fire in the destruction of the huts, show
what were once the "pleasant haunts of men." No stone implements ever
appear. If they existed they could not escape notice, since the eyes
in walking are almost always directed to the ground to avoid stumbling
on stones or stumps. In some parts of the world stone implements are
so common they seem to have been often made and discarded as soon as
formed, possibly by getting better tools; if, indeed, the manufacture
is not as modern as that found by Mr. Waller. Passing some navvies in
the City who were digging for the foundation of a house, he observed a
very antique-looking vase, wet from the clay, standing on the bank. He
gave ten shillings for it, and subsequently, by the aid of a scrubbing
brush and some water, detected the hieroglyphics "Copeland late Spode"
on the bottom of it!

Here the destruction is quite recent, and has been brought about by
some who entertained us very hospitably on the Misinje, before we came
to the confluence. The woman chief, Ulenjelenje, or Njelenje, bore a
part in it for the supply of Arab caravans. It was the work of the
Masininga, a Waiyau tribe, of which her people form a part. They
almost depopulated the broad fertile tract, of some three or four
miles, between the mountain range and the Lake, along which our course
lay. It was wearisome to see the skulls and bones scattered about
everywhere; one would fain not notice them, but they are so striking
as one trudges along the sultry path, that it cannot be avoided.

_9th September, 1866._--We spen