tiny flat above the water
hole. They bobbed away cursing over their shoulders at us. Next day we
debouched on the plains. They were rolling, densely grown, covered with
volcanic stones, swarming with game of various sorts. The men marched
well. They were happy, for they had had a week of meat; and each carried
a light lunch of sun-dried biltong or jerky. Some mistaken individuals
had attempted to bring along some "fresh" meat. We found it advisable to
pass to windward of these; but they themselves did not seem to mind.
It became very hot; for we were now descending to the lower elevations.
The marching through long grass and over volcanic stones was not easy.
Shortly we came out on stumbly hills, mostly rock, very dry, grown with
cactus and discouraged desiccated thorn scrub. Here the sun reflected
powerfully and the bearers began to flag.
Then suddenly, without warning, we pitched over a little rise to the
river.
No more marvellous contrast could have been devised. From the blasted
barren scrub country we plunged into the lush jungle. It was not a very
wide jungle, but it was sufficient. The trees were large and variegated,
reaching to a high and spacious upper story above the ground tangle.
From the massive limbs hung vines, festooned and looped like great
serpents. Through this upper corridor flitted birds of bright hue or
striking variegation. We did not know many of them by name, nor did
we desire to; but were content with the impression of vivid flashing
movement and colour. Various monkeys swung, leaped and galloped slowly
away before our advance; pausing to look back at us curiously, the ruffs
of fur standing out all around their little black faces. The lower half
of the forest jungle, however, had no spaciousness at all, but a certain
breathless intimacy. Great leaved plants as tall as little trees, and
trees as small as big plants, bound together by vines, made up the "deep
impenetrable jungle" of our childhood imagining. Here were rustlings,
sudden scurryings, half-caught glimpses, once or twice a crash as some
greater animal made off. Here and there through the thicket wandered
well beaten trails, wide, but low, so that to follow them one would have
to bend double. These were the paths of rhinoceroses. The air smelt warm
and moist and earthy, like the odour of a greenhouse.
We skirted this jungle until it gave way to let the plain down to the
river. Then, in an open grove of acacias, and fairly on th
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