HUNTING AND HUNTED IN BELGIAN CONGO 



down upon us with all its dazzling might as we crawled 

 forward at a snail's pace. Some of the boys carried loads 

 weighing as much as sixty-eight pounds. Our guns had 

 to be done up in the tent loads, borne on the boys' heads, 

 for carrying them on the shoulder was impossible, since 



all but our heads was submerged. Captain H had told 



me that he had had great difficulty in coming from 

 Wadelai to Panyongo, but the water was only armpit 

 high, and only that in places, when he came through, 

 so the river must have come down with increased volume 

 in the night. I do not know the name of this river, but 

 it is the third and last one of the journey from Koba to 

 Wadelai by footpath. 



My arrival at Wadelai was hailed with delight by 

 Salem and the other boys that I had left there. Salem 

 had recovered, and was now quite himself again. 



There are one or two little incidents that I may mention 

 that happened during my stay there. One afternoon I 

 decided to go for a walk and examine the ruins of an old 

 boma close by, that dated back to the days of Emin 

 Pasha's regime here. Leaving the camp in charge of 

 Salem, I set out with Monica, who carried a short spear, 

 and, lighting my pipe, I walked behind him, feeling 

 happy and content with the world at large. We had 

 travelled for about three-quarters of an hour, and were 

 walking through a patch of grass on a narrow well- 

 trodden path, when Monica suddenly bent down and 

 examined some marks on the narrow track, and told me 

 that he considered that they were the spoor of " simba " 

 (lions). The impressions made were not very distinct, 

 and personally I regarded them as being the tracks of 

 a prowling leopard on his rounds of the previous night. 

 Every one had up to then told me that lions were not to 

 be met with in those parts, although the natives had 

 big stories of the depredations made by them. Half 

 an hour later, as we were skirting a piece of dense wooded 



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