CHAPTER XIV. 



ELEPHANT-HUNTING. 



THE Uganda Protectorate begins at the Kedong. Ele- 

 phants are occasionally met with here ; for on one 

 journey I came upon fresh elephant-spoor, and on a 

 subsequent visit upon the remains of a recently killed 

 elephant. Birds and beasts of prey had left little of the huge 

 carcase besides the skull, the heavier bones, and some lumps 

 of putrefying hide ; yet my Wanyamwezi porters cooked this 

 mal-odorous offal over their camp-fires, and gorged themselves 

 with as much gusto, as any hyaena or vulture might display. 

 But it was in Unyoro, the northern limit of the Protectorate, 

 that I saw, for the first time, wild elephants. This happened at 

 Kibero, on the east shore of Lake Albert. 1 had gone in a dug- 

 out canoe to look out for hippos, said to be present about here 

 in large numbers. 



A dug-out canoe is simply a hollowed-out tree-trunk. The 

 natives use rather peculiar paddles which look somewhat like 

 a huge spade with a slight curve backwards. There are usually 

 five to six canoe-men. One man sits at the stern and steers 

 with his paddle. 



We pulled along for perhaps an hour, but saw only one 

 solitary hippo ; and he did not wait for us to get nearer than 

 a quarter of a mile before he popped his head under water, and 

 we saw no more of him. We had selected a sandy bit of beach 

 to land, when a Soudanese was the first to notice the unmis- 

 takable signs that a herd of elephants had recently visited this 

 very spot. We decided to follow them up, and we came upon 

 the herd in about two hours. 



But before we started, I sent the dug-out to fetch the cook 

 and some provisions, and to bring my camp - bedstead and 

 blankets ; and another of my men I told off, to put up a grass- 



