X MOSQUITOES AND FEVER 199 



fired, on which she broke into a gallop, snorting 

 loudly ; but, after running for a couple of hundred 

 yards, she pulled up and sank down on to her knees 

 stone dead, and I despatched the calf with another 

 bullet. One of the Kafirs now instantly started at full 

 speed for the camp, to call all the people to come and 

 carry the meat. On examination this proved to be 

 the common black rhinoceros of the interior {R. 

 bicornis). Her anterior horn measured 21 in. in 

 length, and the posterior 5 in. 



Before the sun was well down the air was filled 

 with huge long-legged black mosquitoes, which 

 attacked my legs and arms with a ferocity and 

 perseverance worthy of a better cause, and forced me 

 to beat a hasty retreat to camp, where I was able to 

 escape from their attentions by sitting in the smoke of 

 the wood fires (a very unpleasant alternative). These 

 atrocious insects, and the risk of fever in its most 

 malignant form, are the two drawbacks to a sojourn 

 in these otherwise interesting swamps. The short 

 winter was now over, and the nights were so hot that 

 I could not bear a kaross over me, except towards 

 morning ; yet, to protect myself from the mosquitoes, 

 I was obliged to pile green wood on the fire, and 

 arrange it so that the smoke blew over me in a thick 

 cloud, which kept them off pretty effectually. 



During my absence quite a small army of fresh 

 arrivals had joined my camp, all ot whom had come 

 across in canoes from the various little islands where 

 thev were living, in the hope of getting meat, so that 1 

 now had at least one hundred hungry mouths to feed. 



About an hour before noon the following day, 

 after a pleasant voyage amongst some little gems of 

 islands — several of them inhabited, and on many of 

 which grew clusters of the tall, graceful palms — and 



