52. WILD LIFE UNDER THE EQUATOR. 
roasted my birds before the blaze on a stick. I was 
very hungry and enjoyed them. 
Then I fixed my two fires in such a way that they 
would last for along time. I laid between them, and 
instead of a roof of leaves I made one with the bark of 
trees, and soon fell asleep; but the roars of the leopards 
and the dismal cries of the owls awoke me several 
times. 
We started early the next day, not discouraged, and 
pushed for the most dense and impenetrable part of the 
forest, for there, in those deep recesses, we hoped we might 
find a gorilla. Hour after hour we travelled, and yet no 
signs of gorillas—we had hardly met a track. We could 
only hear at long intervals the little chattering of monk- 
eys, and occasionally of birds. The solitude was grand, 
the silence profound, so much so that we could hear our 
panting breath as we ascended hill after hill. I was be- 
ginning to despair. : 
Suddenly Miengai uttered a little cluck with his 
tongue, which is the native’s way of showing that some- 
thing is stirring, and that a sharp lookout is necessary ; 
in a word, to keep ourselves on our guard, or that danger 
was surrounding us. Presently I noticed, ahead of us 
seemingly, a noise as of some one breaking down 
branches or twigs of trees. 
We stopped and came close together. I knew at 
once by the eager and excited looks of the men that it 
was a gorilla. They looked once more carefully at their 
guns, to see if by any chance the powder had fallen out ° 
of the pans; I also examined mine, to make sure that 
all was right, and then we marched on cautiously. 
The singular noise of the breaking of the branches 
