ACROSS LAKE CHAD 221 



blossoms are of a brilliant apricot-gold in colour, and 

 as they fall transform the dull waters beneath. 



Our canoes were the only moving things, and the 

 solitude was unbroken even by birds. The Spirit of 

 the Lake had laid her spell over us too, and we 

 paddled onwards, still passengers on that quiet^ 

 lonely sea. 



When night fell we tied up in a clump of bushes, 

 and we were glad indeed that it was there to give 

 us shelter, for the wind rose once more, and great 

 waves would have swept over us had it not been for 

 the protection given by that little forest of marea. 



We were barely settled in the harbourage before 

 a hippo came to dispute it with us, and for a long 

 time we stood, rifle in hand, ready to meet its charge. 

 The "boys" were terrified, for the Shari and Chad 

 hippo are fierce, and one of our polers had had hi& 

 arm permanently injured in a previous encounter. 



The second canoe sought safety by our side, thereby 

 adding grave discomfort to our night, for it contained 

 both drying skins and boys' food, which mainly con- 

 sisted of rotten fish, for which they have an inex- 

 plicable passion. 



The hippo seemed content with the annoyance it 

 had inflicted on us and withdrew, but our night was 

 not passed in luxury, for though there was room for 

 us three to lie in a row under the protection of a 

 mosquito-net, water oozed in below and beside us, and 

 Mr Talbot was drenched through twice over. His- 

 wife and I were on a little island of straw, dry and 

 happy, but the clothes we had laid at our feet were 

 soaked, and worse still, so were the boxes that con- 

 tained the botanical collection. The boys had to bale- 



