394 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1909. 
buck, roan antelope, kob, ostrich, pig, and wild dog. This was ac- 
counted for by the fact that the dry season causes all this game to 
concentrate near the banks of the river. 
At Archambault we found it necessary to collect a large supply of 
grain, for hardly a village lay in front of us, and our next object 
was the exploration of the Bamingi River, which flows through a 
deserted country. On August 6 we camped on a sand bank at the 
junction of the Bamingi and Gribingi rivers. The former is the 
larger, having a width of some 50 yards at its mouth. This river 
was still unknown to the explorer, unless we consider the record of a 
French trader, named Behagle, who attempted to ascend it, but at 
the rapids, about 4 miles from the mouth, had his boat badly smashed 
and was compelled to return. He was afterwards hanged by Rabeh 
at Dikoa. With the exception of these rapids, caused by a reef of 
rocks across the river, we found the Mamingi excellent for naviga- 
tion. In August it was at its full, with a depth of 6 to 9 feet and a 
strong current which made our progress slow. 
The river Bamingi has pretty scenery; sometimes the banks rise 
to a height of 60 feet formed by rocky knolls, and at these points the 
growth becomes tropical. For 130 miles, ie distance we traveled 
up this river, we found the country uninhabited, and the impressive 
solitude was only disturbed by the herds of elephant, which at times 
frequented the gravelly sand banks, and troops of baboons that fol- 
lowed us along the banks, gazing in excited wonder at our boats. 
We next ascended the small rivers Gribingi and Nunna, and crossed 
the Shari-Ubanghi watershed, carrying the boats for four days. 
Then we descended the Tomi River through a well-watered and 
undulating region. Here the character of the vegetation changes. 
Thick belts of forest full of rubber vine hide the streams, and the 
fauna for the first time belongs to the forest region. 
In this part of the country the natives have a barbarously cruel 
method of hunting elephants. When a herd is located in the dry 
grass, all the villages turn out with guns and spears and fire the 
grass all round the herd. The poor beasts make frantic attempts to 
break through the ring of fire, and are to be seen rushing madly to 
and fro in their agony, rooting up trees and throwing grass and 
earth over their scorched backs. 
A journey of four days down the Tomi River brought us into the 
Ubanghi, or “ drinker up of little rivers,” a great stream some 1,200 
yards in width, swelling to a mile at the bends. Its banks are fringed 
with trees, with undulating grass beyond. On either side chains of 
gentle rounded hills, about 150 feet in height, and devoid of trees, 
save in the hollows and ravines, loop sometimes close to the river line 
and sometimes wind away to a distance of a day’s journey. Above 
the junction of the river Kwango, there are large wooded islands, 
