more to its intensity.

Ah! they may well think with regret of the grateful shade which the
luxuriant forest afforded; they may well say that they wished that the
forest had lasted for ever, for it furnished many a pool of clear water,
the freshness of which the pale yellow lotus flowers, languidly resting
on its surface, seemed to enhance. They may well think of the joyous
chorus which the gorgeously-feathered birds gave out incessantly from
morn until evening; they may well think with regret of all the pleasures
which the primeval woods furnished, which they have now exchanged for
the steamy plain and acrid jungle. But the road to home and comfort
lies through many a jungle yet, and these inconveniences ye have to
suffer, my friends, if ye ever think to embrace the friends who await ye
at Zanzibar!

At sunset they came to a shallow pool, whose consistence was that of
liquid mud of a chalky colour. The vicinity showed that it was a
frequent resort for such animals as were benighted in the inhospitable
plain on their way to more northern pasture-grounds, and that its colour
and unsavoury taste had been caused by the thirsty beasts plunging into
its middle in their hurry to assuage the thirst which consumed their
vitals. But little recked our thirsty heroes for the colour or the
unsavoury taste of the water so long as it relieved in the slightest
degree the pangs which tormented them.

Continuing their journey towards the west the next day, one of the
annoyances which troubled them the day before abated. The jungle had
disappeared, and in its place stretched a treeless plain before them,
which was covered with tall and bleached grass of the last summer's
growth. This plain, when they had travelled many hours towards its
centre, and took a survey around, they found to be an oval depression,
as the jungle which they had left in the morning appeared to be on much
higher ground than that on which they now stood, and Kalulu expressed
his opinion that they had begun to descend towards the lake-land of
southern Liemba, in which opinion Simba and Moto concurred.

As they advanced still further to the west, the country began to heave
upward on the horizon, though they seemed to descend into a yet lower
level. Presently walking became a task of difficulty. The firm close
ground over which they had travelled, and the dense pasture-grass
changed into a tall sedge which formed tussocks, separated and isolated
from each ot