HUNTING AND HUNTED IN BELGIAN CONGO 



Rigby, I brought down a fine specimen of Uganda Kob ; 



shortly after P brought down a fine reed buck. The 



firing brought out a large number of people from the 

 village, and as our boys had quite enough to earn', we 

 decided to get some of the natives, after skinning and 

 cutting up the beasts, to bring the meat to camp up at 

 Wadelai. We gave them the heads and horns, and a leg 

 of each animal. Presently we arrived at the head of the 

 plateau, overlooking the flat grass country south of 

 Wadelai, through which runs another river on its way to the 

 Nile. We had about eight more miles to do before reaching 

 the Post-house at Wadelai. We could see a canoe on the 

 opposite bank, but all was still as death. It was im- 

 possible to cross the river without a boat of some sort, 

 so to attract attention we fired a shot which soon brought 

 down some of the people of the village. After the usual 

 shouted greetings between our boys and the people of 

 Chief Okele, the canoe came over and we set to work 

 to get our goods and chattels across the water, paying the 

 requisite Government rate for hire. In another twenty 

 minutes we found ourselves outside the Post-house. 

 This stands on a hill overlooking the delightful part of 

 the Nile known as Lake Rube, over which I have seen 

 from the eastern side, the most glorious effects of sunset 

 in Central Africa. Away to the west, in the Congo, I could 

 see the rough grey outlines of the hills running from north 

 to south, at the foot of which lies the bush country of the 

 Enclave. The lake is about three miles across at this 

 spot. Half a mile away a solitary canoe drifted idly 

 northwards. I could hear the dull chanting of the figure 

 seated high in the stern as he stared at a flock of wild 

 geese flying overhead to the west. The sun, a huge 

 glowing mass of fire, was sinking fast beneath the grey 

 mountains far away. A cool breeze rustled through the 

 grass and bushes as the sky above darkened rapidly to 

 a violet hue. Suddenly in the west there flamed a glory 



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