HUNTING AND HUNTED IN BELGIAN CONGO 



nowhere to be seen, but it turned out afterwards that one 



of P 's boys had taken it by mistake. I returned to- 



the canoe, and away we set off again. We had just got 

 halfway across the river when I noticed some grass floating 

 down on us, thirty feet or so from our port bow. Instead 

 of letting it pass in front of our craft the canoe boy took 

 deep long strokes with his paddle and attempted to run 

 across the front of it, which he did only just in time to 

 avert disaster ; for as we shot in front of the floating 

 mass it fouled our stern and made the canoe wobble 

 about terribly for a few seconds. I felt sure that we were 

 going over, an experience that I did not want with the 

 two guns and ammunition aboard. It is impossible to 

 gauge the size of these floating islands by what appears 

 above the surface, for the solid part may extend some 

 little distance under water, like the ram of a battle- 

 ship. 



In the afternoon two of the villagers came to the 

 camp with a report of game to be had a short distance 

 away ; so leaving Salem in charge of the camp, I set out 

 with some of my boys and the villagers, and after an 

 hour's walk we reached some short grass country where 

 I succeeded in bringing down two fine hartebeeste and 

 a water-buck. 



The next morning we left Wadelai and pushed on in 

 a north-easterly direction ; the path for the first two 

 hours ran through a thickly wooded country full of that 

 horrible thorny bush that I have mentioned before. 

 The mule would persist in dragging me through the thick 

 of it. My knees being bare were soon torn about, and 

 every now and then a hooked thorn, similar to the South 

 African " Waacht en beetje," would catch in my shirt 

 and come near pulling me out of the saddle. From time 

 to time a chicken tied by the leg on the top of a load 

 would come into contact with a branch full of these 

 thorns that the boy ahead had held aside, and when he 



74 



