396 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1909. 
have greatly improved since the Belgian occupation, for its protec- 
tion shields them from the raids of the fiercer forest tribes. 
It was at Angu that we first heard rumors of the existence of the 
okapi in the neighborhood, and in the forest, some three days to the 
southeast of that place, we spent three weeks endeavoring to obtain 
one. The okapi, or n’dumba as it is very widely known by the 
natives, is very locally found, and Angu is the only part near the 
Welle where it is met with. We found its haunts were small streams 
running through swampy ground, thickly overgrown with a clean- 
stemmed plant some 6 to 8 feet in height, with large oval shiny 
leaves bunching at the top, the young shoots of which are an essen- 
tial food of the okapi. In these localities it roams about singly or in 
pairs, and, according to the Mobatti hunters, three may occasionally 
be found together. Gosling, although he got to close quarters with 
it on three occasions, never saw it, so perfectly concealed was it 
among these leaves. He says: “ During the night the okapi will 
~wander along in the mud and water in search of the young shoots of 
this plant. Here he may be found feeding as late as 8 a. m., after 
which he retires to the seclusion of the forest, where he remains until 
dusk. In the glades and clearings I found his spoor on ground 
frequented by buffalo and water buck, but this is unusual, for his 
companions in the forest are more often the elephant, the greater 
bush buck, and the yellow-backed duiker.” At this time José had 
been following a solitary animal for three successive mornings in 
the vicinity of a stream. He observed that, on leaving the water, 
the okapi always took the same course, between two large trees about 
a hundred yards from the stream. So, with the help of natives, he 
dug a pit 44 feet deep between the trees, and then carefully eon- 
cealed it with branches and leaves. Very early next morning José 
again approached the stream and heard the noise of the okapi rush- 
ing away. Soon there followed a loud thud, for the animal, taking 
its usual course, had fallen into the pit, and was secured. Owing 
to the thick leaf and forest, its restless nature, and keen hearing, even 
the natives find it difficult to track, and are obliged to resort to the 
method of trapping it in pits. They regard the animal as a mys- 
terious creature, and say that it is always moving and never lies 
down to sleep. José’s observations bear this out, for on several occa- 
sions when he heard it feeding it simply paused to take a leaf here 
and there and then passed on again. 
This portion of the journey was the most trying to the health of 
the party, the long stays in the hot, steaming forest hunting the 
okapi, and the work on the Welle, which has an evil reputation for 
being the breeding ground of bilious and blackwater fever, told 
severely upon our already weakened constitutions, and we were all 
