To Lake Albert Edward 185 



move about and cook their provisions without any assistance, but 

 after ten days such a change for the worse set in that they simply 

 sat in their huts absolutely inert and helpless, with staring eyes 

 and limp hands. As we were unable to aid them, they grew 

 rapidly worse, and in fourteen days they succumbed to the 

 disease. 



This terrible evil, the spread of which has only been checked 

 in a limited degree by the use of atoxyl, claims a vast number of 

 human victims annually in the Congo State. The Government 

 endeavours to suppress the malady with all the means at its 

 command. The praiseworthy intentions of the State are, how- 

 ever, terribly handicapped by the apathy of the natives, who will 

 not place themselves in the hands of the white man. Although 

 later on we saw some excellently organised infirmaries in the 

 Congo territory, they are only as a drop in the ocean, and the 

 number of their inmates only forms a fraction of the sick popula- 

 tion wasting to death far from human help in the dark depths 

 and damp decay of the virgin forest. 



The sport in the valley of the Semliki can hardly be com- 

 pared to that of the Rutschuru valley, yet water-buck, moor- 

 antelope, and reed-buck may often be seen. The abundance of 

 elephants, on the other hand, exceeded all expectations. I cannot 

 remember a day on which I did not sight one. At night time we 

 could often hear them tramping round in the vicinity of the camp 

 and the peculiar noise they make in browsing. In the morning 

 we frequently discovered fresh traces left by them during the 

 night in immediate proximity to the camp. Yet we did not even 

 take the trouble to follow them up, but simply made for the 

 clearer places in the acacia forest on the open bank, where they 

 used to congregate rather later in the morning. Occasionally we 

 met troops of four to eight, and sometimes herds of forty to fifty. 



The Congo State endeavours as far as is possible to protect 

 its enormous stock of living ivory, its main export. To this end 

 it has created great reserves, in which the capture and killing of 

 the animals is prohibited. On account of the difficulty of con- 

 trol, particularly in the vast forest districts, such prohibition is 



