On the Upper Kapoche 103 



report is accurate; but if they have drawn upon their 

 imagination they receive food only not to count the 

 jokes which the men of the expedition make about 

 them when they see they are disturbed for nothing. 

 When you are a stranger in a district any native can 

 guide you from one point to another ; only hunters 

 can show you the places frequented or likely to be 

 frequented by game. 



We were rather badly off in the matter of sport 

 in the Undi district. Formerly animals were very 

 plentiful everywhere, but to-day their traces dis- 

 appear in proportion as you get away from the 

 Zambesi. This country has been explored by 

 thousands of natives, who were sent out in all direc- 

 tions every year by the Tete ivory merchants, the 

 result of this war without quarter being that ele- 

 phants have departed for ever from this dangerous zone. 

 With the exception of a few rhinoceros and a dozen 

 antelopes, our journey was fruitless. 1 I will take 

 the reader, therefore, to the end of the rainy season 

 that is, in June on the return from that journey. 



We are on the Upper Kapoche, a few days' journey 

 north of our former Niarugwe camp on the terri- 

 tory of the chief Mpeseni. As the dry season is 

 approaching, elephants will be fewer and more diffi- 

 cult to follow. The character of sport is about to 

 change completely. 



From the hunter's point of view the seasons are 

 divided in these regions, that is, south of the equator, 

 into three well-defined periods, as follows : 



1 See Mes Graitdes Chasses, p. 275. 



