CHAPTER V 



MY FIRST GIANT SABLE 



NCE across the Loando we had entered the 

 long and narrow watershed which divides 

 this river from the Coanza, into which it- 

 flows. This country is over 200 miles long and 

 from 20 to 60 broad. Towards its southern end 

 and on the Luce and Lusengo, tributaries of the 

 Loando, the big sable had actually been shot. 

 The nature of the watershed varies ; it is over 

 4000 feet high, hilly and forested, towards the south 

 and the sources of the rivers ; only 3000 feet, less 

 undulating and more open, near where the Coanza 

 and Loando join. (See Ivlap at end of i ook,) 



The natives said that the sable were to be found 

 in all the watershed, and more plentifully toward' 

 the south, bul not beyond the rivers ; and the 

 depth and width of the crocodile-haunted Coanza 

 and Loando made this limited distribution of 

 the sable probable. The question was. were the 

 sable limited to certain forest patches, or were 

 they also in the flats ? Bid they only browse 

 on certain bushes, as 1 had heard in England, or 

 did they graze as well ? A few sable were reported 

 on a strep. rn called the Rumelia, a tributarv of 

 the Loando. to the POUT]].- west of our first earnp. 



