with it apparently much delighted.

The ford was at least 250 yards broad, but rocky and shallow. After
crossing it in a canoe, we went along the left bank, and were completely
shut in by high hills. Every available spot between the river and the
hills is under cultivation; and the residence of the people here is
intended to secure safety for themselves and their gardens from their
enemies; there is plenty of garden-ground outside the hills; here
they are obliged to make pitfalls to protect the grain against the
hippopotami. As these animals had not been disturbed by guns, they were
remarkably tame, and took no notice of our passing. We again saw numbers
of young ones, not much larger than terrier dogs, sitting on the necks
of their dams, the little saucy-looking heads cocking up between the
old one's ears; as they become a little older they sit on the withers.
Needing meat, we shot a full-grown cow, and found, as we had often done
before, the flesh to be very much like pork. The height of this animal
was 4 feet 10 inches, and from the point of the nose to the root of the
tail 10 feet 6. They seem quarrelsome, for both males and females are
found covered with scars, and young males are often killed by the elder
ones: we met an instance of this near the falls.

We came to a great many little villages among the hills, as if the
inhabitants had reason to hide themselves from the observation of their
enemies. While detained cutting up the hippopotamus, I ascended a hill
called Mabue asula (stones smell badly), and, though not the highest in
sight, it was certainly not 100 feet lower than the most elevated. The
boiling-point of water showed it to be about 900 feet above the river,
which was of the level of Linyanti. These hills seemed to my men of
prodigious altitude, for they had been accustomed to ant-hills only.
The mention of mountains that pierced the clouds made them draw in their
breath and hold their hands to their mouths. And when I told them that
their previous description of Taba cheu had led me to expect something
of the sort, I found that the idea of a cloud-capped mountain had never
entered into their heads. The mountains certainly look high, from having
abrupt sides; but I had recognized the fact by the point of ebullition
of water, that they are of a considerably lower altitude than the top of
the ridge we had left. They constitute, in fact, a sort of low fringe
on the outside of the eastern ridge, exactly as