Lake Kiwu and its Islands 99 



should have succeeded in taking home this coveted prize if I had 

 not been seduced by a fox-goose waddling along, which I imme- 

 diately made mine for the sake of our larder. The shot started 

 up a bush-buck which had, concealed from me, been browsing 

 behind a hill, but which, with a few bounds, at once disappeared 

 into the forest. It escaped me a second time in a similarly annoy- 

 ing manner. I had stationed myself one afternoon at a spot 

 on the edge of the forest, which, from the many tracks of game, 

 p/omised me some likelihood of success. Half-hour after half- 

 hour fled by, but no bush-buck was to be seen. The sun had 

 long sunk below the distant Congo mountains, and there was no 

 longer light enough to shoot by, when across from the camp there 

 approached the flickering glimmer from the lantern of the Askari 

 who had been ordered to fetch me. I stood up dejectedly and 

 went to meet him. Then there came a short shrill cry of terror, 

 and a yellow shadow, twenty paces away, fled back into the 

 forest. My chagrin can be imagined, for we had to proceed 

 farther the following day, and all hope of getting the important 

 zoological specimen was gone. But I had reckoned without my 

 trusty comrade Mildbraed. By no means a born hunter, he had, 

 up to the present, used the skill in shooting which he had acquired 

 in the Prussian military service almost exclusively for botanical 

 purposes by bringing down the blossom-bearing branches of the 

 virginal forest. As regards living animals, his bullets had so 

 far only been utilised for despatching certain billy-goats of our 

 flocks destined for slaughter, and here and there a crane which 

 had stood in the way of his caravan. Therefore, my amazement 

 was not small when I understood the " bana niaua" or " Flower- 

 master," had shot some game. Whilst making an excursion to 

 the southern half of the island, Mildbraed had suddenly noticed 

 something red moving slowly in the high steppe grass. Raising 

 his gun hastily, he let drive, and the famous bush-buck of Wau 

 lay at his feet — a full-grown female of the species {Tragelaphus 

 roualeyni). It appeared smaller to us than the specimens collected 

 elsewhere. In what way it diff"ers — if differ it does — from the 

 animal which frequents the banks of the lake, cannot be deter- 



