HUNTING IN THE MOUNTAINS 



tree-trunks, and a persistent smell of burning. 

 The purification of the African soil has passed. 



If this sight is wonderful by day, it is still more 

 magnificent at night. In the calm of the evening all 

 the sounds, which do not seem so loud during the day, 

 increase strangely, and the voice of the fire swells 

 to a howling. The horizon is entirely surrounded by 

 flames bathed in a purple margin. Amid this tur- 

 moil, under the clear fight of the stars, which look 

 pale against the red glow, the whole of nature, fearful 

 and silent, listens to the passage of the levelling scourge. 



The day after the waterspout had visited us in 

 camp at Muza, I went to see a compatriot, Mr. Pacotte, 

 whom I knew to be living in the neighbourhood, to 

 ask him to tell me of a convenient place to reside 

 during the rainy season. Mr. Pacotte, who is an 

 engineer, and represents several mining companies, 

 very kindly told me of a small house situated at 

 Andrada, about ten miles from Massikesse. I took 

 this house, which we are now occupying ; it is a small 

 building of earth and wood, rough-cast and white- 

 washed, with a zinc roof. It is not a palace, certainly, 

 but is a great improvement on the native dwellings, 

 although, when the sun shines on the zinc it gets so 

 hot that I have determined to have it thatched. 

 There is no drinking-water close by, and this has to 

 be brought from a distance of over 1,500 yards, as the 

 Reyoue, which runs at the foot of the property, is 

 often muddy, because of the mining works higher up. 



(21) 



