Page:Livingstone in Africa.djvu/104

82 With many a fleecy cloudlet sailing slow. Small richly armour'd quaint iguanas bask On every sunniest bough; while startled eyes Of glorious lithe beasts flash for a moment Out of the solemn sylvan opaline Of hoary forest boles, and swiftly vanish: Little agamas nod their orange heads; A lovely praying mantis, green as leaves, Rests on green leaves; and green cameleons.

We wind along; the waters rise from rain; Blue hazy hills arise, saluting us. Often, when we have doubled some fair cape, With thud and plash fall fragments of rich loam; And as we round low river promontories, Crocodiles basking upon yellow sand, With dull green eyes, and huge obscene fang'd jaws, Wake startled; gliding plunge into the flood; Where many a delicate-tinted pelican Stores silver fishes in his hanging pouch.