,
till at length, one day, we said good-bye to the Olifants' just where
the Elands' River flows into it, and turned our faces eastward. This
course soon brought us on to higher ground and away from the mimosa,
which loves the low, hot valleys, into the region of the sugar bush,
which thrives upon the hill-sides. This sugar bush is a very handsome
and peculiar plant, with soft thick leaves, standing about twenty feet
high. It bears a brush-like flower, each of which in the Cape Colony
contains half a teaspoonful of delicious honey; but, curiously enough,
though in other respects the tree is precisely similar, this is not the
case in the Transvaal or Natal. At the proper season the Cape farmers
go out with buckets and shake the flowers till they have collected
sufficient honey to last them for the winter, a honey more fragrant than
that made by bees.

After a long ride over the open, which must once have been thickly
populated, to judge from the number of remains of kraals, we came at
length to Fort Weeber. The fort is very badly situated in the hollow of
a plain, and so surrounded by fine hills that it is entirely commanded.
It consists of a single sod wall about two feet thick and five high,
capped with loose stones, whilst at two of the corners stand, on raised
platforms, a six-pounder and a three-pounder Whitworth gun. Inside the
wall are built rows of mud huts, which are occupied by the garrison,
leaving an open square, in the midst of which is placed the magazine. We
found the garrison in a wretched condition. They have not received any
pay except Government "good-fors" (promissory notes, generally known as
"good-for-nothings"), so they are in a state of abject poverty; whilst
they are rendered harmless as regards offensive operations, by the
death, from horse-sickness, of eighty-two of the ninety horses
they owned. However, the officers and garrison gave us a very grand
reception. As we rode up, they fired a salute of twelve guns, and then,
after we had dismounted and been received by the officers, we were taken
through a lane made by the garrison drawn up in a double line, and, just
as we got to the middle, "bang" went the eighty rifles over our
heads. Then an address was read (the volunteers are great people for
addresses), but a more practical welcome soon followed in the shape of a
good dinner.

Next morning we started, a party of seven, including the interpreter,
to ride over the Loolu Berg to Secocoeni's, a