How to Choose Camping Ground. 125 



heat of the sun is sometimes terrific ; or right in the middle 

 of the rainy season, when the coarse grass is from loft, to 

 2oft. in height, and usually soaking wet and full of creepers 

 and stinging plants. 



There are many opportunities of exercising one's 

 ingenuity when living in the wilds, as stores full of 

 different necessaries are not found round the first corner 

 as they are in large cities and towns at home. 



The tent should be pitched under a big leafy tree ; 

 though care should be taken to inspect the branches to see 

 if any are rotten and likely to fall if a gale springs up I 

 remember once I was camped under a large tree and 

 omitted this inspection, and a gale came on in the middle 

 of the night, bringing down a large branch. Luckily for 

 me it only touched a tent rope, giving the tent a bad shake, 

 but if it had been a few feet nearer, I would not be writing 

 this at the present moment, as it w r eighed a ton or more. 



Some trees grow large gourd-like oblong pods, about 

 i8in. or more long, and I once saw one land on a native's 

 head and knock him insensible. When he recovered he 

 said that an enemy had tried to kill him by making the 

 vegetable growth strike his skull, which, to say the least, 

 was amusing. 



The three essentials for a camp are the presence of 

 shade, water, and fuel ; and these are all abundant in 

 Central Africa. If water cannot be found above ground it 

 can often be got by digging in the bed of a sandy river- 

 course. The presence of puku, impala, waterbuck, and 

 reedbuck usually denote that water is somewhere near. 



If a man gets lost in the bush by himself, and cannot 

 find a path, the best thing he can do is to first try to find 

 water, and then he should make a smoky fire on the highest 

 spot near, and wait until his friends appear. Here I 

 presume that he is careful not to leave camp without a 

 box of matches, a rifle and cartridges, and a knife ; which 

 are real necessities in a wild country. With water and 

 some meat he could live for a long time, taking care to 

 keep a large fire going by day and night. Green leaves 



