Page:Seven Years in South Africa v2.djvu/240

 We went on the next morning across a great many small streams, the valleys of which were covered with deep dark soil and generally much overgrown; the streams appeared to flow in various directions, south, south-east, south-west, but the whole of them, I imagine, ultimately found their way into the Panda ma Tenka. The valleys were divided from one another either by rocky hills or sandy woods. We saw traces of koodoos, steinbocks, waterbocks, bushvaarks, and of a great many elephants. In the after part of the day we came to a forest in a somewhat more extensive valley, with side-valleys opening into it on either hand. We made our camp for the night close to a perpetual stream, that received the waters both of the main valley and its branches, and was called the Matopa river by the Manansas who formerly lived there. For three-quarters of its course it is a mountain-torrent not more than twenty feet wide and from three to four feet in depth, but towards its mouth, which is below the Victoria Falls, its width materially increases.

On the following morning (September 7th) we left our encampment betimes, in order to reach the falls the same day. All day long and throughout the remainder of the trip, I had to get along in great discomfort. In making provision for my longer journey I had reserved all my good boots, and for immediate use had bought a pair of shoes from a trader at Panda ma Tenka, but after two days wear they fell to pieces, and I was obliged to fasten the fragments together by straps bound round my feet, while, as if to make the difficulty more trying, the road became extremely rough and