Fort Jameson to Nawalia 



and would have been spared the worries and 

 anxieties consequent on the too hurried, devious 

 tour we followed. But it is very easy to be wise 

 after the event. 



That evening Mrs. Beaufort gave a dinner- 

 party, and we had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. 

 Wallace, the wife of the Administrator (who was 

 away), and also various heads of the North- East 

 Rhodesian Government. 



On Sunday we attended divine service in the 

 local church, and were glad of a day of rest. We 

 lunched with Mrs. Wallace at Government House, a 

 comfortable building facing a large open grass plain, 

 on which a number of golden-crested cranes were 

 strutting about. These birds were in complete 

 liberty and very fairly tame. They flew away occa- 

 sionally, but always returned. This reminds me that 

 once in Nyasaland my boys brought me a nestful of 

 unfledged little birds and wanted me to feed my 

 eagle with them, which I refused to do. These nest- 

 lings were small cranes, and two lived for a few 

 days; I might possibly have reared them, only, un- 

 fortunately, one day I gave them hard-boiled egg 

 mixed with native flour; this food was too dry and 

 disagreed. They travelled with me in the machilla, 

 and at night the small basket that made their nest 

 was placed inside my mosquito curtain. What 

 would have happened when their legs and beaks 

 got too long for the basket I do not know. 



Monday morning there was again much to be 

 done, as we hoped to make a start in the afternoon. 

 The shooting licence had to be procured and import 



131 



