264 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



indented by smaller bays, lagoons, and inlets, all fringed 

 by a broad belt of impenetrable papyrus, while the beauti- 

 ful purple lilies, with their leathery-tough stems and broad 

 surface-floating leaves, filled the shallows. At the mouth 

 of the main bay we passed a floating island, a mass of papy- 

 rus perhaps a hundred and fifty acres in extent, which had 

 been broken off from the shore somewhere, and was float- 

 ing over the lake as the winds happened to drive it. 



In an opening in the dense papyrus masses we left the 

 launch moored, and Cuninghame and I started in the row- 

 boat to coast the green wall of tall, thick-growing, feather- 

 topped reeds. Under the bright sunshine the shallow flats 

 were alive with bird life. Gulls, both the gray-hooded and 

 the black-backed, screamed harshly overhead. The chest- 

 nut-colored lily trotters tripped daintily over the lily pads, 

 and when they flew, held their long legs straight behind 

 them, so that they looked as if they had tails like pheasants. 

 Sacred ibis, white with naked black head and neck, stalked 

 along the edge of the water, and on the bent papyrus small 

 cormorants and herons perched. Everywhere there were 

 coots and ducks, and crested grebes, big and little. Huge 

 white pelicans floated on the water. Once we saw a string 

 of flamingoes fly by, their plumage a wonderful red. 



Immediately after leaving the launch we heard a hippo, 

 hidden in the green fastness on our right, uttering a med- 

 itative soliloquy, consisting of a succession of squealing 

 grunts. Then we turned a point, and in a little bay saw 

 six or eight hippo, floating with their heads above water. 

 There were two much bigger than the others, and Cuning- 

 hame, while of course unable to be certain, thought these 

 were probably males. The smaller ones, including a cow 

 and her calf, were not much alarmed, and floated quietly, 

 looking at us, as we cautiously paddled and drifted nearer; 

 but the bigger ones dove and began to work their way past 

 us toward deep water. We could trace their course by 

 the twisting of the lily pads. Motionless the rowers lay on 

 their oars; the line of moving lily pads showed that one 



