HUNTING IN THE MOUNTAINS 



freely : there were, however, important reasons why 

 this site was chosen. The railway, which it was 

 very difficult to lay down in this mountainous country, 

 could only cross at this spot, and the establishment of 

 Massikesse was the necessary consequence of its coming. 



I must not, however, omit to mention that every- 

 thing possible has been done to make the place healthy. 

 An old commandant of the district, the captain of 

 the Andrada engineers and the real founder of Mas- 

 sikesse, has made regular streets there, which are 

 spacious and shady. The town possesses a hospital, 

 and there is even a sanatorium built on the mountain. 

 There are some fine brick-buildings to be seen, but 

 there are also too many hideous little houses of wood 

 and corrugated iron, veritable ovens in which the 

 inmates must be nearly baked alive. The third day 

 after our arrival we took leave of the commandant, 

 Major de Bellegarde, and his delightful family, 

 and set out for the Mangota mountains, where we 

 intended to make our first camp. 



To facilitate our moving, I hired a large wagon 

 drawn by four oxen and four mules. It is a con- 

 veyance only to be found in this region, which is one 

 of the few places where domesticated animals have 

 not to fear the tsetse-fly (a relation of the one which 

 gives sleeping-sickness), and where they are able 

 to live unless attacked by hematuria, rinderpest, 

 or pneumonia. The wagon stopped at the foot of 

 the mountain which it could not ascend, and thirty 



(3) 



