410 CLOSING INCIDENTS. 



the grass immediately surrounding the camp. All members of the party 

 were in excellent health and delighted with their visit in the Congo. 



From Rhino camp the party returned to Wadelai from whence a three 

 day's journey by boat on the Upper Nile brought them to Nimule, where 

 they arrived February 9 on scheduled time. There the Colonel received his 

 mail, of which quite a pile had accumulated during his three weeks' absence 

 in the wilderness. He was the recipient of a great number of requests to 

 speak in European cities but declined to arrange for addresses other than 

 those already promised. 



At Nimule begin the rapids of the Nile, which impede navigation until 

 Gondokoro, so that this part of the journey has to be done on foot. These 

 rapids are a most impressive spectacle. For a short space the whole volume 

 of the Nile is forced through a channel cut in the rock, only fifteen to twenty 

 yards wide, and of unknown depth, and then leaps out into a boiling caldron 

 of foam, surrounded by black polished cliffs and dense, dark vegetation. 

 Other, but less remarkable rapids succeed, and the river is not free for navi- 

 gation until a few miles of Gondokoro, where the swampy vegetation begins. 



The road from Nimule to Gondokoro offered the most trying experi- 

 ences of their African journey to the ex-President and the American ex- 

 pedition. For ten days they were isolated in a wilderness so forbidding to 

 the white man that it has not been invaded by the telegraph companies, the 

 only communication among its scattered villages being by means of native 

 runners. The dangers of the marsh can only be understood by those familiar 

 with the route. Sometimes they had to scramble over rocks and sometimes 

 wade through marshes or over-flows ; often they had to march through grass 

 six or seven feet high, drenched wnth a cold clammy moisture, which settles 

 on the long stalks and defies the sun for several hours. They also had to 

 cross three deep and swift rivers, some wading, others being carried by na- 

 tive porters, and others ferried over on rafts, bridges being practically un- 

 known in this part of Africa. Sometimes they were relieved by large, spread- 

 ing trees, which offered a grateful shade, and when, as sometimes happened, 

 these were scattered over an open, grassy meadow, the view was restful and 

 attractive. 



The Colonel and Kermit left the expedition's trail for a day's hunting 

 of elephant and giant elands at Rajof, on the Congo side of the Bar-el-Jebel 

 river. The hunters invaded the territory on the special and eagerly accepted 

 invitation of the Belgian authorities. Save for this departure from the 



