286 © THROUGH UNKNOWN AFRICAN COUNTRIES. 
was so thick that it would have taken weeks to cut a path 
through it. Our only course, therefore, was to wade down 
the river and trust to luck. It was most disagreeable 
work now, wading for five hours, and getting the animals 
through narrow canyons in which the stream formed deep 
rapids. Dodson and I were obliged to walk barefooted, as 
our boots were giving out; for, although we had taken 
many pairs along with us, we had had to tramp so much 
in the rain and over rough mountains that we had worn 
out almost our entire stock of foot-gear. 
We tried to ride camels, but as none of my animals were 
trained for this purpose, we had a sorry time of it, getting 
thrown into the water or run away with among the bushes, 
and we soon took to our legs again. At one time we 
found ourselves confronted by a mass of bowlders, so that 
we were obliged to dig away the bank of the stream and 
cut a path through the forest. As soon as the first man 
had got through this with his axe to the next bend of the 
river, which he came to luckily only a couple of hundred 
yards farther on, we drove the cattle after him, so as to 
make a wider path for the camels. The camels managed 
to wade through the water without any difficulty, owing 
to their large flat feet, but the donkeys and cattle kept 
floundering about and getting stuck in the mud at every 
turn. We were afforded considerable amusement at one 
time by one of my boys, named Mohammed, disappearing 
suddenly in a quicksand nearly up to his shoulders. 
Mohammed, who was called “Sleepy Eyes,’ because he 
used to go to sleep while standing upright, became 
now, for the first time in his life, thoroughly awake; 
but his position was not dangerous, as there were many 
hands to help him and the quicksand was not very 
broad. 
We were just having a good laugh at “Sleepy Eyes’ 
” 
