Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
shuffle and the dog flew for his life.'
It was never seen again,
eaten, presumably, by a leopard. Another potential encounter
with a leopard occurred as Holmes was exploring some caves
which
showed clearly that they were the abodes of leopards and
we went at it in grim excitement, pistol in one hand and can-
dle in the other. However the usual inmates were absent and
beyond shooting at a baboon we had no need for our weapons.
On the whole, I must say that travel is less exciting than I
anticipated and apart from that snake I have seen nothing
from which an attack would mean death. Travelling here is
as safe as in England, provided one uses discretion and does
not shoot down occasional niggers as the Portuguese do.
Despite this bravado, they did pass four human skulls stuck
up on posts at the entrance to one village.
After their rest at Nacavalla, Holmes and Barton finally left
for the base camp at Sawa calling in
en route
to Nampula, which,
a hundred miles inland, was the end of the telegraph line.
Waiting for them there was a telegraph message with the good
news that Reid's arm was much better and that he would be
joining them from Durban in three weeks time. They then
pressed on to Sawa. After the long trip of six weeks with only
Barton for company -
'I sometimes feel very lonely with only
him as a companion for we have no interests in common' -
the excitement of seeing his friends again at Sawa put Holmes
in an elated frame of mind as he walked the last few miles to
the base camp:
Oh, I was in a gorgeously happy mood - rather spoiled by
Mr. Barton's illness, but all the same irrepressible - perfect
'joie de vivre'. It was a lovely morning, fresh and cool, and
with a blue radiance in the atmosphere bathing one in a crys-
talline blue sky which thrilled one. All around great mountains
in purple and gold were rising up to stupendous heights get-
ting apparently even higher as we approached the wonderful
valley. I sang out (misuse of 'sang' but you'll understand) all
