Page:Seven Years in South Africa v2.djvu/130

 feet ten inches. The variety of birds was very great; birds of prey were represented by the buzzard and the dwarf owl; singing birds by pyrols of two kinds and fly-catchers, the males distinguished by their long tails; the smaller songsters being even more numerous than in places where the vegetation was more luxuriant and diversified. Shrikes were especially numerous, particularly a large kind with a red throat and breast, frequenting low thick bushes. Yellow-beaked hornbills were not uncommon, neither were small-tailed widow-birds, hoopoes, and bee-eaters. I likewise contrived to collect a good many plants, and some varieties of seeds, fruits, and funguses.

A wooded ascent brought us to a plain of tall grass, enclosed on two sides by the forest. Every-thing about us, animal and vegetable, seemed more and more to partake of a tropical character. I was much struck by the peculiar way in which some of the lezuminous trees shed their seeds, the heat of the sun causing the pods to burst with a loud explosion, and to cast the seed to a considerable distance all about. The air was full of myriads of tiny bees, that crept into our clothes, hair, and ears, and made our noses tingle to our great discomfort.

Since leaving the Nata we had been making a continuous ascent, and it seemed that we had now reached the highest point of the plateau. Some of the low hills that we passed contained traces of melaphyr and quartzite; and the soil generally was so stony, that although the baobab throve very fairly, all other trees and shrubs were of singularly stunted growth.

It was on the evening of the 30th that we had