t province. The cattle in this country are
seldom milked, on account of the strong prejudice which the Portuguese
entertain against the use of milk. They believe that it may be used with
safety in the morning, but, if taken after midday, that it will cause
fever. It seemed to me that there was not much reason for carefully
avoiding a few drops in their coffee, after having devoured ten times
the amount in the shape of cheese at dinner.

The fort of Pungo Andongo (lat. 9d 42' 14" S., long. 15d 30' E.) is
situated in the midst of a group of curious columnar-shaped rocks, each
of which is upward of three hundred feet in height. They are composed of
conglomerate, made up of a great variety of rounded pieces in a matrix
of dark red sandstone. They rest on a thick stratum of this last rock,
with very few of the pebbles in its substance. On this a fossil palm has
been found, and if of the same age as those on the eastern side of the
continent, on which similar palms now lie, there may be coal underneath
this, as well as under that at Tete. The asserted existence of petroleum
springs at Dande, and near Cambambe, would seem to indicate the presence
of this useful mineral, though I am not aware of any one having actually
seen a seam of coal tilted up to the surface in Angola, as we have
at Tete. The gigantic pillars of Pungo Andongo have been formed by a
current of the sea coming from the S.S.E.; for, seen from the top, they
appear arranged in that direction, and must have withstood the surges of
the ocean at a period of our world's history, when the relations of land
and sea were totally different from what they are now, and long before
"the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for
joy to see the abodes prepared which man was soon to fill." The imbedded
pieces in the conglomerate are of gneiss, clay shale, mica and sandstone
schists, trap, and porphyry, most of which are large enough to give
the whole the appearance of being the only remaining vestiges of vast
primaeval banks of shingle. Several little streams run among these
rocks, and in the central part of the pillars stands the village,
completely environed by well-nigh inaccessible rocks. The pathways into
the village might be defended by a small body of troops against an army;
and this place was long the stronghold of the tribe called Jinga, the
original possessors of the country.

We were shown a footprint carved on one of these rocks. It is spoken