WITH FLASH-LIGHT AND RIFLE 



parently, not been occupied for some time, and I my- 

 self refrained from disturbing the animals. From my 

 camp, as a vantage-ground, I could thus watch herds 

 of gnus and zebras, and take snap-shots at will. They 

 were, unfortunately, not all successful. 



These quadrupeds fed amid flocks of crown cranes 

 and Nile geese ; hundreds of gazelles moved about among 

 them; the male gnus grazed. away from their herds, each 

 by himself, clearly outlined in the evening light. No 

 shallows break the surface of these lakes. The water 

 reaches up to our hips in those places where the steppe 

 has been drained, by natural canals, into the swamps; 

 elsewhere the average depth is about two feet. The 

 shores are covered with thickets of reeds ; the surface of 

 the water is covered, as far as the eye can reach, with 

 water-plants, among them the pothomachccton, indig- 

 enous also in Europe, recognized and classified by me 

 for the first time in Gennan East Africa. 



I waded about with my native companions for hours 

 in this enormous sheet of water, watching the white 

 heron, the black-and-white-feathered "sacred" ibis, 

 the black heron, the thousands of geese, and the flocks 

 of red flamingoes on the far-off shore — in short, birds of 

 many kinds filled the air, flitted over the water, and 

 lined the shore. 



A thick carpet of plants is spread over the surface 

 of the water, making it look almost like firm land, and 

 impeding our progress while we are wading, step by 



60 



