44 SEARCH FOR THE GORILLA AND THE IPL Chap. HL 



in the large hollows of colossal trunks of trees which 

 have fallen to the ground. The burrows that I saw 

 were in light soil on the slope of a hill. There are 

 two holes to each gallery, one for entrance and the 

 other for exit. This is necessary, on account of the 

 animal being quite incapable of curving its body 

 sideways, so that it cannot turn itself in its burrow. 

 The bodies of pangolins are very flexible vertically, 

 that is, they can roll themselves u}) into a ball, and 

 coil and uncoil themselves very readily, but they 

 cannot turn round within the confined limits of 

 their burrows. In hunting them we had first to 

 ascertain, by the footmarks, or more readily by the 

 marks left by the trail of the tail, which was the 

 entrance and which the exit of the burrow, and then, 

 making a trap at the one end, drive them out by the 

 smoke of a fire at the other ; afterwards securing 

 them with ropes. The freshness of the tracks told 

 us that the animal had entered its burrow the pre- 

 vious evening ; for I must add that the ipi is 

 nocturnal in its habits, sleeping in its burrow 

 throughout the day. When it wanders at night the 

 natives say that they can hear the rattling of its 

 large scales. 



A long and wearisome day's hunt produced no 

 fruit. We wandered over hill and dale through the 

 forest and streams, leaving the beaten paths, and 

 struggling for hours through the tangled maze, with 

 no other result than to tear our clothes to rags, and 

 cover ourselves with scratches from the thorns and 

 cutting edges of sword-like grasses which grew in 

 many places. I nevertheless persevered, searching 



