HUNTING AND HUNTED IN BELGIAN CONGO 



of beads as well as my folding chair and washstand, 

 making a grand total of sixty-seven pounds, to say 

 nothing of his own impedimenta, was engaged in a 

 ceaseless running chatter with the boy ahead of him, 

 apparently paying little heed to the slippery nature of 

 the ground. His foot became entangled in a root and he 

 fell on his back in the water, causing no little merriment 

 to the others. Of course, box, chair, and washstand 

 went down with a splash, drenching every one close by. 

 However, after rubbing his neck, which had suffered 

 somewhat, he replaced the little grass pad that porters 

 carry between their heads and the load, like the circular 

 pad on which bakers carry their bread-boards, gathered 

 up his load and went on. He had a neck like a bull's, 

 otherwise the consequences might have been more 

 serious. 



A little further on I saw a spur-winged goose sitting 

 on a tree about sixty yards off, and in response to a bullet 

 from the left barrel of my 450 rifle, it came down with a 

 series of somersaults. I found on picking it up that I 

 had blown away the top of its head, so I was not prepared 

 for the shock that I had, when, after we had marched a 

 few miles further on, the bird recovered strength enough 

 to chuckle loudly and struggled to get free from the hand 

 of the boy who was carrying it ! Shooting birds, the 

 small fry more especially, with a -450 big-game rifle is 

 vastly different from using a shot gun where you have 

 several small shot scattered. 



About eleven a.m. we left the Nile and commenced 

 winding our way towards the west. Acacia horrida 

 abounded everywhere. Climbing up a considerable slope 

 we discovered from the top a village some miles away to 

 the north-west, and I could see plainly that in order to 

 reach it we should have to cross a very swampy piece of 

 country ; but there was no help for it, so off we set. Our 

 path, which was something like twenty inches in width, 



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