Probably A Country Which Yields The Wild Vines
So Very Abundantly Might Be A Fit One For The Cultivated Species.
At this part of the journey so many of the vines had run across
the little footpath we followed that
One had to be constantly on the watch
to avoid being tripped. The ground was covered with rounded shingle,
which was not easily seen among the grass. Pedestrianism may be all very well
for those whose obesity requires much exercise, but for one who was becoming
as thin as a lath, through the constant perspiration caused
by marching day after day in the hot sun, the only good I saw in it
was that it gave an honest sort of man a vivid idea of the tread-mill.
Although the rains were not quite over, great numbers of pools were drying up,
and the ground was in many parts covered with small green cryptogamous plants,
which gave it a mouldy appearance and a strong smell. As we sometimes
pushed aside the masses of rank vegetation which hung over our path,
we felt a sort of hot blast on our faces. Every thing looked unwholesome,
but we had no fever. The Ue flows between high banks of a soft red sandstone
streaked with white, and pieces of tufa. The crumbling sandstone
is evidently alluvial, and is cut into 12 feet deep. In this region, too,
we met with pot-holes six feet deep and three or four in diameter.
In some cases they form convenient wells; in others they are full of earth;
and in others still the people have made them into graves for their chiefs.
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