4. 
142 WILD LIFE UNDER THE EQUATOR. 
leaf could have been heard by any a5 of us, the silence 
was so profound. 
The canoe that was to take us came. Adouma and 
Quabi paddled, and onward we went until we reached a 
bend of the river, and I could distinctly hear the ele- 
phants. So we thought best to land inside of the bend, 
which we did without uttering a whisper for fear of alarm- 
ing the elephants. After landing the great difficulty was 
how to gain the other side. The country was overflowed, 
it was all bog-land, yet to the elephants we must go. We 
could not possibly follow the edges of the forest that 
bordered the Ofoubou, for we should have soon found 
ourselves in twenty feet of water, and in the middle of a 
strong current.~ These bog-lands are always dangerous 
things on the banks of the overflowed African rivers. 
I hung my powder-flask close to my neck, and also 
my watch, in case the water should be deep, for I am not 
tall. My men took the same precaution with their bags, 
and then Malaouen took the lead. Where we landed there 
was no dry spot, and as we advanced through the woods 
we immediately found ourselves entangled in the midst 
of the roots of the trees, with the water above our waists, 
sinking knee deep into the mud, ignorant at every step 
whether the next might bring us into water up to our necks 
or above our heads. That was about as difficult a tramp 
as I ever had had in all my travels. Suddenly Quer- 
laouen’s foot caught under some roots, and down he went 
into the water, gun and all. He immediately swore in 
Bakalai that somebody had bewitched him, and did not 
want him to killan elephant. Finally we came to a place 
where the water reached my neck, I being the shortest 
of all; so I took my watch and powder in one hand and 
4, 
any 
