52 CHIEFS & CITIES OF CENTRAL AFRICA 



grass and rush that grow to the very edge of the low 

 sandbanks. Here shells lie, and the tiny footprints of 

 myriads of birds are to be seen, and every now and 

 again the deep narrow line made by a crocodile or 

 iguana, as it draws itself on to the shelving bank or 

 across to the muddy swamp that lies beyond. 



It is along here that during the short period of high 

 water white men's canoes pass, for it is almost in a 

 straight line that the Mao Kabi debouches into the 

 lake from Lere, and finds its way out at the western 

 end, beneath the high range of the Kaa Chiu, where it 

 adds its waters to a great branch of the Benue, and so 

 to the river Niger and Atlantic Ocean. 



There are three islands on the lake. They are small, 

 and there is no human habitation on them, so they 

 are the home of many wild things : hippopotami 

 gather there, sure of solitude, and their passage is 

 marked by the torn and broken bushes that they have 

 trampled down on their way to the swampy depres- 

 sions where they love to wallow. Yet it is only for 

 a short space that the beauty of the scene is marred, 

 for flowering shrubs and creepers grow up quickly to 

 blot out the damage done, and once more the thicket 

 seems impenetrable. 



On the sandy shore amaryllids burst their sheaths 

 amid black rocks of mica, and the thick shell of the 

 water-snail contrasts with the translucent tints of its 

 more fragile brethren. 



We made our way to the nearest island, and 

 landed to find ourselves amongst a dense population 

 of millepedes. For the sake of those happily ignorant, 

 I may explain that these creatures are of the length 

 and rotundity of a sausage, and of the consistency 



