The hills separating the valleys are either rocky, wooded, and serrated, or flat, broad, and very often miles in extent before they are low enough in their decline to form the valleys or beds of other rivulets. They generally consist of grassy plains or dense forests, which contain many tropical trees and shrubs, and among these we find many producing eatable fruits—the Mupura tree, covered with a yellowish fruit, and ripe in the months of September and October; Okerate, with a small yellowish-brown fruit, as well as the Mororo, a small bush, with an exceedingly well flavoured fruit, and ripe in January and February; Tshe-Mohura, containing seeds similar to those of nux vomica; Musumuso, Mohoamy, Makuluany, Sibuja, and about thirty more. Some of the trees are used for various purposes by the natives, for the building of canoes, for oars, assegai handles, different kinds of hurdle work, mats, baskets, nets, ropes, etc., for work in wood, such as pots, dishes, musical instruments, etc. The fruit of some is used for snuff doses, and other articles. The stems and roots of several shrubs are used for healing purposes, and generally attended with success; of these the Mororo, which is given as an antidote for snake-bites, is especially worthy of notice.
As the valleys mostly contain moist soil, they would, as an attempt at Pandama-Tenka sufficiently showed, prove very fertile; and, to recall my former words, they are especially adapted for the cultivation of rice and cotton.
If I pronounce the country, in reference to Botany, rich and promising, I must say something similar in favour of its Fauna. We find any amount of game here, which I shall note down with regard to their frequency in the following order: Quagga, Zebra, Zulu Hartebeest, Orbeke, Duijker, Stembuck, Buffalo, Rietbuck, Bush and Vlakvark, Bastard Eland, Harrisbuck, Elephant, Eland, two species of white and three of black Rhinoceros, Giraffe, Waterbuck, and Blue Wildebeest. Besides these, the rocky parts of the country, and the banks of the rivers overgrown with tall reeds, abound with animals of prey.
The Ornithologist and Entomologist would find here rich matter for their respective studies. The following genus of birds are specially represented:-Ospreys, different kinds of Falcons, Owls, Singing birds, from the finely plumaged Roller to the insignificant Gnat-magper, Honey-searchers, Cuckoos, King-fishers, Snipes, Sanderlings, small Herons, and Wild-ducks. The Etomologist will be most agreeably surprised by the discovery of many new species of beetles and butterflies.
The geological structure is richer than in many South African countries, when compared with the extent of the latter. In parts of the country through which I travelled I found the rocky hills to
