VIII 



THE RR'ER JUNGLE 



WE CAMPED along this river for several 

 weeks, poking indefinitely and happily around 

 the country in all directions to see what we could see. 

 Generally we went together, for neither B. nor my- 

 self had been tried out as yet on dangerous game — 

 those easy rhinos hardly counted — and I think we 

 both preferred to feel that we had backing until we 

 knew what our nerves were going to do with us. 

 Nevertheless, occasionally, I would take Memba 

 Sasa and go out for a little purposeless stroll a few 

 miles up or down river. Sometimes we skirted the 

 jungle, sometimes we held as near as possible to the 

 river's bank, sometimes we cut loose and rambled 

 through the dry, crackling scrub over the low vol- 

 canic hills of the arid country^ outside. 



Nothing can equal the intense interest of the most 

 ordinary walk in Africa. It is the only country I 

 know of w^here a man is thoroughly and continu- 

 ously alive. Often when ridmg horseback with the 

 dogs in my California home I have watched them 



89 



