THE RHINOCEROS OF THE LADO 397 



to their custom, were now burning it. There was no forest; 

 but scattered over the plains were trees, generally thorns, 

 but other kinds also, among them palms and euphorbias. 



The following morning, forty-eight hours after leaving 

 Butiaba, on Lake Albert Nyanza, we disembarked from 

 the little flotilla which had carried us a crazy little steam 

 launch, two sail-boats, and two big row-boats. We made 

 our camp close to the river's edge, on the Lado side, in a 

 thin grove of scattered thorn-trees. The grass grew rank 

 and tall all about us. Our tents were pitched, and the grass 

 huts of the porters built, on a kind of promontory, the main 

 stream running past one side, while on the other was a 

 bay. The nights were hot, and the days burning; the 

 mosquitoes came with darkness, sometimes necessitating 

 our putting on head nets and gloves in the evenings, and 

 they would have made sleep impossible if we had not had 

 mosquito biers. Nevertheless it was a very pleasant camp, 

 and we thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a wild, lonely coun- 

 try, and we saw no human beings except an occasional 

 party of naked savages armed with bows and poisoned 

 arrows. Game was plentiful, and a hunter always enjoys a 

 permanent camp in a good game country; for while the 

 expedition is marching, his movements must largely be 

 regulated by those of the safari, whereas at a permanent 

 camp he is foot-loose. 



There was an abundance of animal life, big and little, 

 about our camp. In the reeds, and among the water- 

 lilies of the bay, there were crocodiles, monitor lizards six 

 feet long, and many water birds herons, flocks of beauti- 

 ful white egrets, clamorous spur-winged plover, sacred 

 ibis, noisy purple ibis, saddle-billed storks, and lily trotters 



