SPORT IN MOZAMBIQUE 



which were absolutely indispensable to the kind of 

 work involved by the mission entrusted to me by 

 the Minister of Public Instruction and rendered 

 equally necessary by the stay of three years which 

 I wished to make in this country. The object of this 

 mission was to put in order and complete the geo- 

 graphical work of various French travellers, and to 

 bring home collections and as many important docu- 

 ments as possible respecting the fauna, flora, and other 

 natural sciences, including ethnology. This long 

 journey had been in some measure prepared for by 

 a former visit of seven months to Mozambique that 

 we had made in 1900. 



Not wishing to weary the reader by enumerating 

 everything we took with us, I will limit myself to a 

 few remarks concerning my weapons. For shooting 

 big game I have a certus-rifle, taking three cartridges, 

 charged with cordite, of 450 calibre, a " sporting " 

 Mannlicher rifle, firing five smokeless cartridges. Both 

 these weapons are sighted up to 320 yards. A small 

 " La Francaise " rifle, a hammerless 12-bore, and a 

 20-bore for my wife completed our armament. 



At the end of a seventeen hours' journey made 

 wretched by the heat, the train set us down at Mas- 

 sikesse. Situated on an immense plain, surrounded 

 by hills on high mountains, Massikesse is not an 

 ideal place of abode in European eyes. The sun's 

 rays are scorching, and the marshes along the river 

 Mineni swarm with mosquitoes which propagate fever 



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