principal hill is named Malawe; a number of villages stand on its tree-
covered sides, and coal is found cropping out in the rocks. The country
improves as we ascend, the rich valley becoming less swampy, and adorned
with a number of trees.

Both banks are dotted with hippopotamus traps, over every track which
these animals have made in going up out of the water to graze. The
hippopotamus feeds on grass alone, and, where there is any danger, only
at night. Its enormous lips act like a mowing-machine, and form a path
of short-cropped grass as it feeds. We never saw it eat aquatic plants
or reeds. The tusks seem weapons of both offence and defence. The
hippopotamus trap consists of a beam five or six feet long, armed with a
spear-head or hard-wood spike, covered with poison, and suspended to a
forked pole by a cord, which, coming down to the path, is held by a
catch, to be set free when the beast treads on it. Being wary brutes,
they are still very numerous. One got frightened by the ship, as she was
steaming close to the bank. In its eager hurry to escape it rushed on
shore, and ran directly under a trap, when down came the heavy beam on
its back, driving the poisoned spear-head a foot deep into its flesh. In
its agony it plunged back into the river, to die in a few hours, and
afterwards furnished a feast for the natives. The poison on the spear-
head does not affect the meat, except the part around the wound, and that
is thrown away. In some places the descending beam is weighted with
heavy stones, but here the hard heavy wood is sufficient.

"She is leaking worse than ever forward, sir, and there is a foot of
water in the hold," was our first salutation on the morning of the 20th.
But we have become accustomed to these things now; the cabin-floor is
always wet, and one is obliged to mop up the water many times a day,
giving some countenance to the native idea that Englishmen live in or on