Page:Seven Years in South Africa v2.djvu/467

 As I crossed the two Shasha rivers next day it became perfectly clear to my mind that the Shaneng must flow either into the Matliutse or one of its tributaries. The district seemed full of game, but not to the same extent as in former years. The animals of which I saw most were pallahs, zulu-hartebeests, harrisbocks, and zebras.

In the evening we halted on the right-hand shore of the rocky Shasha, a stream that has derived its name from the character of its bed. I took the opportunity of getting out a little distance towards the east, where, on one of the granite mounds, I found some ruins that had played their part in the history of central South Africa. The hill was isolated, and not so high as those near it, and it had been fortified by a wall composed of blocks of granite laid one upon another, without being fixed by cement of any kind. The wall was about 140 feet long, and enclosed a space of ground as nearly as possible on the top of the hill, being built on the natural crags in such a way that the artificial rampart it formed hardly rose in some parts many inches from the ground, whilst in other places it was six feet high; in thickness it varied from twelve to eighteen inches. It had an entrance facing the north, and there it projected so as to make a kind of avenue. The blocks of which it was made were flat, and varying in size from four to ten inches in length, three to six inches in width, and two to ten inches in depth, the flat sides being irregular trapeziums. My impression was that the occupants of this limited fortress—whether permanent or temporary there was nothing to decide—had also erected a superior palisade of wood or bushes above