Some account is now necessary of the locality within which the rebel bands took refuge, shortly to become the focus of more than a month's operations by some 2,000 European troops and a like number of Native levies. The name Nkandhla is probably derived from the verb _kandhla_, meaning "to tire, exhaust, or prostrate," and is applied collectively to the various great and more or less connected forests that clothe the mountains, spurs and valleys of that part. The area in question, as will be seen from the map, is about eleven miles long by five broad. Separate names are given to about ten of the forests, among them: Dukuza (_wander about_), Elendhlovu (_the elephant one_), Elibomvana (_the little red one_), and Kwa Vuza (_the dripping one_). The slopes of the mountains are remarkable for their steepness, especially when approached from the low ground in the vicinity of Cetshwayo's grave. The altitude of the slopes, of course, varies, but the steepness is practically uniform, whether the height be 2,000, 3,000, or 3,500 feet. The bed of the Insuze River, from the Tate to the Halambu, would average about 1,100 feet--where the Mome enters the Insuze, it is 1,122. In many parts, the peaks and ridges rise to a height of 1,500 to 2,000 feet from the nearest stream bed, and within a distance of less than a mile, measured from the foot of the perpendicular. Three streams flow through the forests into the Insuze, viz.: Mome, Nkunzana, and Halambu, and, of these, the Nkunzana traverses the heart or densest part of the forests. The principal forest, as well as the deepest and darkest, is Dukuza, no doubt deriving its name from the fact that one is liable to lose his way therein and go wandering about unless acquainted with the secret that, to find his way, he must climb the nearest ridge to see in what direction to make.[172] The trees are not, as a rule, higher than sixty feet, though, near the bottom of some of the gorges, they rise to seventy and eighty. Generally speaking, there is but little undergrowth, and the trees stand rather wide apart. Here and there a precipice or _donga_ is met with.