and, if he sees none, he soon moves off. I have seen
some frightful gashes made on the legs of the people who have had the
misfortune to be attacked, and were unable to dive. This animal uses his
teeth as an offensive weapon, though he is quite a herbivorous feeder.
One of these "bachelors", living near the confluence, actually came out
of his lair, and, putting his head down, ran after some of our men who
were passing with very considerable speed.

The part of the river called Zabesa, or Zabenza, is spread out like a
little lake, surrounded on all sides by dense masses of tall reeds. The
river below that is always one hundred or one hundred and twenty yards
broad, deep, and never dries up so much as to become fordable. At
certain parts, where the partial absence of reeds affords a view of the
opposite banks, the Makololo have placed villages of observation against
their enemies the Matebele. We visited all these in succession, and
found here, as every where in the Makololo country, orders had preceded
us, "that Nake (nyake means doctor) must not be allowed to become
hungry."

The banks of the Chobe, like those of the Zouga, are of soft calcareous
tufa, and the river has cut out for itself a deep, perpendicular-sided
bed. Where the banks are high, as at the spot where the wagons stood in
1851, they are covered with magnificent trees, the habitat of tsetse,
and the retreat of various antelopes, wild hogs, zebras, buffaloes, and
elephants.

Among the trees may be observed some species of the 'Ficus Indica',
light-green colored acacias, the splendid motsintsela, and evergreen
cypress-shaped motsouri. The fruit of the last-named was ripe, and the
villagers presented many dishes of its beautiful pink-colored plums;
they are used chiefly to form a pleasant acid drink. The motsintsela is
a very lofty tree, yielding a wood of which good canoes are made;
the fruit is nutritious and good, but, like many wild fruits of this
country, the fleshy parts require to be enlarged by cultivation: it is
nearly all stone.

The course of the river we found to be extremely tortuous; so much so,
indeed, as to carry us to all points of the compass every dozen miles.
Some of us walked from a bend at the village of Moremi to another nearly
due east of that point, in six hours, while the canoes, going at more
than double our speed, took twelve to accomplish the voyage between the
same two places. And though the river is from thirteen to fifteen