Change of District 3 5 



the most. It is also the time when you splash about 

 everywhere, when nothing is dry, when you pass 

 your life getting wet and drying yourself, and 

 when, in the evening, to crown the day, you sleep 

 in wet blankets, to the noise of the patting of the 

 showers. Tents, however uncomfortable they may 

 be, are considered delicious shelters. And to do 

 your cooking it is necessary to gather the wood for 

 the fire in advance, and to dry it before being able to 

 use it. 



Our camp is situated on a small hillock between 

 two small rivers flowing over fine sand, and it is 

 barricaded with abatis of branches and thorns, which 

 act as a wall. It is composed of four tents and ten 

 thatched shelters. De Borely being three days' 

 journey away with the greater part of the expedi- 

 tion, I have with me Bertrand and twenty men only. 

 There is not a village within a radius of thirteen 

 miles, not a path in the immediate surroundings. 

 The stillness of nature reigns over all things. 



One morning, it might be seven o'clock, the men 

 are conversing in hushed voices around their camp 

 fires. The sun is shining, following the rain which 

 prevents us setting out each day at dawn to 

 survey the neighbourhood. Without noise we set 

 out on march, dividing ourselves into two bodies. 

 For two days past we have scented elephants : the 

 day before yesterday we found a track made that 

 very morning, yesterday one of the previous evening. 

 The district is covered with a certain tree, the fula, 

 the fruit of which has the appearance of a wild almond 



