I70 In the Heart of Africa 



The camp was encircled with a stockade to form a protection 

 against lions, which were fairly prevalent, and it was therefore 

 very cramped. Our stay was in consequence hot and anything 

 but agreeable. The fence had proved itself necessary, how- 

 ever, as lions had previously broken in and destroyed human 

 life. The audacious marauders had not been daunted by a 

 leap of more than three metres over the high hedge. Only a 

 month before I arrived, a sentinel on duty at the exact spot 

 where my tent stood was seized by one of them. He only owed 

 his life to the fact that the lion, frightened by the screams in 

 the camp, abandoned his victim and, springing back over the 

 fence, fled away. 



We came across fresh tracks which led close along by the 

 fence, and we several times heard roaring. As we intended to 

 shift our camp to the steppe as quickly as possible, turning off 

 in an easterly direction, the abundance of lions in this region 

 suited us very well. The whole Rutschuru plain from Maji ja 

 moto to the southern end of Lake Albert Edward simply swarms 

 with game. Wherever one looks the plain is covered with im- 

 mense herds of antelopes. Yet, as in the whole of Central 

 Africa, the number of species met with is fairly limited. The 

 chief are the water-buck, moor-antelopes, reed-buck, duyker- 

 buck and jimara (lyre-antelope). Buffalo may be seen daily 

 in great herds in the bush, which concentrates into a forest-like 

 growth towards the lake. We also often observed the ugly 

 forms of dicotyles. They prefer the neighbourhood of swampy 

 places and river courses, although they are also encountered in 

 the middle of the wide plain. As the dicotyles are accounted 

 a particular delicacy by the lion, their presence partly explains 

 the considerable number of lions in the district. 



The Belgian officers, generally speaking, hunt very little, 

 and, indeed, the only game shot is used for commissariat pur- 

 poses, so that there does not appear to be any immediate danger 

 of these shooting-grounds being depleted. The Rutschuru steppe 

 is a bare, level track, broken by light acacia growths. It was 

 covered with low grass reaching to the knee at the time of our 



