n
which neither wells nor gullies are met with, may, after the dry season,
present the opposite extreme to what we witnessed. Water, however, could
always be got by digging, a proof of which we had on our return when
brought to a stand on this very plain by severe fever: about twelve
miles from the Kasai my men dug down a few feet, and found an abundant
supply; and we saw on one of the islands the garden of a man who, in
the dry season, had drunk water from a well in like manner. Plains
like these can not be inhabited while the present system of cultivation
lasts. The population is not yet so very large as to need them. They
find garden-ground enough on the gentle slopes at the sides of the
rivulets, and possess no cattle to eat off the millions of acres of fine
hay we were now wading through. Any one who has visited the Cape Colony
will understand me when I say that these immense crops resemble sown
grasses more than the tufty vegetation of the south.

I would here request the particular attention of the reader to the
phenomena these periodically deluged plains present, because they have a
most important bearing on the physical geography of a very large portion
of this country. The plains of Lobale, to the west of this, give rise
to a great many streams, which unite, and form the deep, never-failing
Chobe. Similar extensive flats give birth to the Loeti and Kasai, and,
as we shall see further on, all the rivers of an extensive region owe
their origin to oozing bogs, and not to fountains.

When released from our island by the rain ceasing, we marched on till
we came to a ridge of dry inhabited land in the N.W. The inhabitants,
according to custom, lent us the roofs of some huts to save the men the
trouble of booth-making. I suspect that the story in Park's "Travels",
of the men lifting up the hut to place it on the lion, referred to the
roof only. We leave them for the villagers to replace at their leisure.
No payment is expected for the use of them. By night it rained so
copiously that all our beds were flooded from below; and from this time
forth we always made a furrow round each booth, and used the earth to
raise our sleeping-places. My men turned out to work in the wet most
willingly; indeed, they always did. I could not but contrast their
conduct with that of Intemese. He was thoroughly imbued with the slave
spirit, and lied on all occasions without compunction. Untruthfulness is
a sort of refuge for the weak and