but, to our disappointment, we found that the other 

 bank which had appeared to slope gently to the water 

 edge was in fact a sheer wall standing up several feet 

 above the river level. The beautiful slope which we 

 had seen consisted of water grass and reed tops ; the 

 bank itself was of firm moist clay ; and the river 

 bottom close under it was soft mud. We tried a little 

 way up and down, but found deeper water, more mud 

 and reeds, and no break in the bank ; there was not 

 even a lagavaan slide, a game path, or a drinking-place. 

 There seemed to be nothing for it but to go back again 

 and try somewhere else. 



Hall was ' bad to beat ' when he started on any- 

 thing he did not know how to give in ; but when he 

 looked at the bank and said, " We'll have a shot at 

 this," I thought at first he was joking. Later, to my 

 remark that "no horse ever born would face that," he 

 answered that " any way we could try : it would be just 

 as good as hunting for more places of the same sort ! " 



I do not know the height of the bank, as we were 

 not thinking of records at that time, but there are 

 certain facts which enable one to guess fairly closely. 



Tsetse was ranged up beside the bank, and Hall 

 standing in the saddle threw his rifle and bandolier 

 up and scrambled out himself. I then loosened 

 Tsetse's girths from my seat on Snowball, and 

 handed up the packed saddle Hall lying down 

 on the bank to take it from me ; and we did 

 the same with Snowball's load, including 

 my own clothes, for, as it was already 

 sundown, a ducking was not desirable, 



315 



