CHIMPANZEES 75 



experience, and from the reports of other travellers 

 and the very untrustworthy information supplied 

 by natives, there is generally a short dry season 

 in January and a longer period in June and July, 

 and possibly in early August, when the greater 

 part of Ruwenzori is comparatively free from rain. 

 Throughout the rest of the year, though there are 

 occasional fine days, it may be said that the rainy 

 season is almost continuous. 



The few incidents that varied the monotony of 

 our sojourn at Bihunga were, as a rule, furnished 

 by the four-legged rather than by the two-legged 

 inhabitants. There were a great many chimpanzees 

 in the forest ; their ' nests,' light platforms of sticks 

 built in the forks of high trees, were frequently 

 found, and often at night one would hear their cries 

 near the camp ; it was a most melancholy sound, 

 like the wailing of children in distress. They are 

 shy animals, and are not very often seen ; but on 

 one occasion we had an excellent view of a small 

 family party, a baby with its two parents, feeding 

 on the fruit of a tree below the camp. With the 

 help of field-glasses it was easy to see the almost 

 painfully human gestures of the old ones, as they 

 helped the little one to move from branch to branch, 

 and fed it with berries. Although they are most 

 commonly found in the tropical forests at a lower 

 level, chimpanzees wander about a great deal and 

 go far up the mountains in search of food ; we 

 found traces of them at a height of nearly 10,000 feet 



