With the exception of the nwana-trees, that stood at long distances apart-- and regularly, as if they had been planted--there was nothing that deserved the name of timber.

All the rest was mere "bush,"-- a thorny jungle of mimosas, euphorbias, arborescent aloes, strelitzias, and the horrid zamia plants, beautiful enough to the eye, but of no utility whatever in the building of a house.

The nwanas, of course, were too large for house-logs.

To have felled one of them would have been a task equal almost to the building of a house; and to have made planks of them would have required a steam saw-mill.

A log-house was not to be thought of either.
Now a frail structure of poles and thatch would not have given sufficient security.