Lake Victoria to Khartoum 



voyage. Fresh meat was a valuable asset for 

 one's own kitchen in a country where it was 

 impossible to buy sheep. An encounter with a 

 white rhino has been described elsewhere, and 

 another with a vicious cow elephant was not at 

 all pleasant. We had landed to cut wood to 

 replenish the stokehole, when I came on the 

 spoor of elephant. After a short trek my depen- 

 dents came to a dead stop and swore they had 

 heard a crashing to our left. I quite thought 

 their nerves were on edge, as we had traversed 

 some nasty bush country. However, these people 

 are very rarely deceived in the jungle, so after 

 sending a couple of men to reconnoitre the 

 supposed position we sat down. Sure enough 

 there were elephant, and they had bolted. This 

 put new life into the proceedings instanter ; we 

 set about following up the tracks, which led 

 parallel to the Nile. Soon the herd broke up ; 

 six cows and young went one way, and about ten 

 bulls and cows another. 



Some of these children of nature, who have 

 been brought up in these out-of-the-way spots 

 from little tots, are quite marvellous in their 

 reasoning powers when it comes to elephant. 

 They said that these cows with calves wouldn't 

 and couldn't go very far or fast, and would, by 

 instinct, be sure to join up with the bulls near the 

 river, although the others might go some distance 

 round at a good hard trot in a semicircle. As 



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