1 84 In the Heart of Africa 



early morning hours, formed the sole point of attraction for the 

 roving eye. 



The force stationed at Kasindi consists of about a hundred 

 men, who are quartered in a special village (Askaridorf) near by. 

 We only saw a small number of them, as the remainder had been 

 despatched to re-erect the St. Gustave Mission Station, which lies 

 a few hours away to the north. 



As we had some time in hand before our conference with the 

 other members of the expedition at Christmas, and as reports and 

 mail matter had been attended to, we used the few days at our 

 disposal to make excursions on the Semliki. From reports of the 

 natives of " many sick people " and of the tsetse-fly being preva- 

 lent, we expected to find many cases of sleeping sickness, and 

 resolved to devote our outing to an examination of the blood of 

 the inhabitants of the Semliki valley. 



As we also hoped to come across a good many elephants and 

 much game, we took a sufficient number of test tubes with us, 

 such as are used in medicine, for collecting specimens of blood 

 from cuts or wounds for microscopical examination. 



It was very important that we should use all the means in our 

 power to examine the blood of any elephants we might kill, 

 and discover whether it contained the germs of sleeping sickness. 

 Through Raven's efforts, ably assisted by Weidemann, many 

 hundreds of the shore dwellers on Lake Albert Edward, particu- 

 larly on the Semliki side, were subjected to examination. Indica- 

 tions of trypanosomcB, however, were not discovered. Unfor- 

 tunately we were unable to carry out the examination of the 

 elephants, as Raven met with an accident just as he was about 

 to begin the microscopic investigation, and was confined to his 

 couch for months. 



There can be no doubt as to the activity and danger of the 

 sleeping sickness in these districts, for in an isolated little house 

 in Kasindi there were two patients, husband and wife, whom we 

 visited daily and in whom Raven interested himself a good deal. 

 The wasting effect of the terrible disease could be clearly observed 

 on this couple. When we first arrived the patients were able to 



