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Seven Years in South Africa.

selves the trouble of having to transport the skins or carcases from the hunting-ground. I have been told both by hunters and natives, and I think it quite credible, that without any great difficulty elands may be tamed and trained to draw or to carry light burdens.

Shortly afterwards we met two Bamangwatos armed with muskets, and driving a couple of oxen laden with meat. They were accompanied by five Masarwas, each of them also carrying a load of meat weighing over fifty pounds. The party was on its way to Shoshong to get instructions from Khame as to its future proceedings, as some of the Makalakas, banished for their treachery, were prowling about the northern confines of the kingdom, and preventing the Masarwas from rendering allegiance to their rightful master.

Bergfontein, at which we arrived early on the 17th, is a spring situated on a woody slope; it is regarded by the natives as the source of the Nokane stream, which flows northwards, but only in the rainy season. The slope, which is very rugged and clothed with luxuriant vegetation, is the declivity of the Maque plain down to the great salt-lakes. At a short distance from the bank of the Nokane spruit the traveller from the south is greeted by the sight of a cluster of fan-palms, a foretaste of the wonders of tropical vegetation; overtopping all the surrounding trees, they were probably the most southerly specimens of that queen of palm-trees in Central Africa. I shot down some examples of the fruit, and added them to my collection. Encircling the base of the slim stems that were crowned with the magnificent foliage was a wonderful undergrowth of