d we
traveled on comfortably. The effect of this care was, that we had much
less sickness than with a smaller party in journeying to Loanda. Another
improvement made from my experience was avoiding an entire change of
diet. In going to Loanda I took little or no European food, in order not
to burden my men and make them lose spirit, but trusted entirely to what
might be got by the gun and the liberality of the Balonda; but on this
journey I took some flour which had been left in the wagon, with
some got on the island, and baked my own bread all the way in an
extemporaneous oven made by an inverted pot. With these precautions,
aided, no doubt, by the greater healthiness of the district over which
we passed, I enjoyed perfect health.

When we left the Chipongo on the 30th we passed among the range of hills
on our left, which are composed of mica and clay slate. At the bottom we
found a forest of large silicified trees, all lying as if the elevation
of the range had made them fall away from it, and toward the river. An
ordinary-sized tree standing on end, measured 22 inches in diameter:
there were 12 laminae to the inch. These are easily counted, because
there is usually a scale of pure silica between each, which has not
been so much affected by the weather as the rest of the ring itself: the
edges of the rings thus stand out plainly. Mr. Quekett, having kindly
examined some specimens, finds that it is "silicified CONIFEROUS WOOD
of the ARAUCARIAN type; and the nearest allied wood that he knows of is
that found, also in a fossil state, in New South Wales." The numbers
of large game were quite astonishing. I never saw elephants so tame as
those near the Chiponga: they stood close to our path without being the
least afraid. This is different from their conduct where they have been
accustomed to guns, for there they take alarm at the distance of a mile,
and begin to run if a shot is fired even at a longer distance. My men
killed another here, and rewarded the villagers of the Chiponga for
their liberality in meal by loading them with flesh. We spent a night
at a baobab, which was hollow, and would hold twenty men inside. It had
been used as a lodging-house by the Babisa.

As we approached nearer the Zambesi, the country became covered with
broad-leaved bushes, pretty thickly planted, and we had several times
to shout to elephants to get out of our way. At an open space, a herd
of buffaloes came trotting up to look at our oxe