But a succession of “dust-devils” or “wind twisters” that very frequently pass over the country in the breathless sultry hours of noon passed over Zimbabwe on the second day after our arrival, and at once demonstrated what damage the trees were inflicting on the ruins. Branches were set crunching and thumping on the summits of all the walls, soft-wood trees bent and swept the walls of loose blocks, two huge hard-wood branches remorselessly scraped noisily up and down the sides and on the top of the Conical Tower, while small trees growing on the actual summits of the walls shook and bent and still further loosened the blocks among which their roots extended. During the few minutes these “twisters” lasted the labourers studiously avoided the walls from which the ancient blocks were falling. Under every branch that crossed over a wall was a deep depression in the summit caused by the branch thudding upon it. Many of the trees growing close to the walls had, with long years of banging against the side of the wall, lost all their bark on their inner sides, and these had become perfectly flat. All this havoc, caused by rocking trees and sweeping branches, and by huge broken limbs falling upon interior walls, must have been going on for many years. The effect has been to cause the removal of the “throughs,” ties, and large bonding stones with which the ancients secured the summits of the walls, and these once gone the wall was subject to rapid dilapidation. Later, during high winds which prevailed for some days, it was most distressing to hear the noise of the trees grating and heavily beating against the walls, and the constant falling down of ancient blocks. The effects of such destruction can be seen to-day in the broken edges of the summits and in the deep depressions which occur at intervals along the lines of both main and divisional walls. Even the chevron pattern has been irretrievably damaged by branches of trees growing outside the temple, while the little tower in the Sacred Enclosure has, within the last few years, been thrown over by a huge branch. But in 1902–4 all trees growing near walls were felled, all projecting branches and rotten limbs were removed, as well as all trees which caused damp to collect on walls, while a general thinning out was made of all branches which interfered with a general view all round the building. Such trees as had done all the possible harm they could do and all trees standing at a distance from walls were left standing. The result has been to make the temple less “picturesque” than in its neglected state, but it still remains picturesque. The temple now appears to be larger, and its massive proportions now made visible stand out far more prominently than before.