Mr. Churchill's Journey- 

 raucous sounds from the engineer, to say nothing 

 of highly coloured expletives. 



And so we proceeded on our voyage, not by any 

 means in a bee line, as, in addition to the floating 

 barriers before described, shallows had to be 

 avoided where they were known to exist. 



For three days we continued our wateryjourney, 

 starting about six in the morning, steaming hard 

 all day, and reaching a camp in the late afternoon. 

 Everywhere we found houses built ready for us, 

 and every convenience in the shape of food await- 

 ing our arrival. This meant that the question of 

 supplies was reduced to an absurdity and saved 

 us the eternal fussing on reaching each camp, 

 without which it seems impossible to get in the 

 food loads before dark. Consequently we had 

 more time to dive into the jungle and pick up a 

 stray guinea-fowl or even a number of pigeons to 

 vary the daily fare of hard, tough mutton. In 

 these tropical countries a sheep that is killed in 

 the morning has to be finished at nightfall, for it 

 will be unfit for human consumption on the 

 morrow ; so that the term " mutton " serves to 

 dissfuise the slabs of a boot-leather-like consist- 

 ency that one is forced to swallow at the even- 

 ing meal. 



N earing Mruli we leave the swampy lakes and 

 the papyrus ramparts close in again. Just before 

 reaching the landing-place one passes the mouth 

 of the Kafu river, overgrown so densely that one 



79 



