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Circa Date
1911-1912
Transcription
(see 2 pgs [pages] ahead)
Notes from Selous, Travel & Adventure in S. [south] Africa.
Camped beneath an immense Baobab tree close to Wankie’s Town on the Zambesi 150 ms [miles] below Victoria Falls.
The country we passed through was far from monotonous & uninteresting. Scattered here & there over the alluvial plain were patches of sandy soil covered with bush & tall forest trees amongst which the dark leaved evergreens which grow so thickly on the brink of Victoria Falls were conspicuous. Here & there too a fantastic Baobab with its huge gouty-looking stem & long leafless limbs met the eye” (July)
Rain season Nov to April. The high plateau of Mashonaland remark
-able for its many huge naked masses of granite rising abruptly from grassy downs some 6 or 700 ft h. [high]. The plateau itself 6000 feet high perhaps the highest part of E. [east] Africa. These domes now being guttered by heavy rain.
Lightning
Suddenly I saw splinters fly from a tree near on whilst all the cattle standing beneath it fall to the ground. On going up to see what had happened I found 13 fine open lying dead.
Some years ago I lost one of my best friends by lightning.
Africa Elephant 10 ¼ & 10 ½ feet high at shoulders. Ears 5 ½ ft l. [long] 3 ½ wide
Lion weighing over 400 lbs.
Resource Identifier
MuirReel33 Notebook09 Img018.Jpeg
Contributing Institution
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library
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