WITH FLASH-LIGHT AND RIFLE 



bushes — one could not walk about the island without 

 becoming covered with hundreds of ticks of various 

 kinds. My thick - skinned blacks were comparatively 

 immune, but I and my European taxidermist, Mr. Or- 

 geich, suffered greatly. I tried to pick the insects off 

 my skin myself, and to remove them by sublimate ablu- 

 tions, but the only way to get rid of them was to strip 

 and have my blacks act like the monkey does when he 

 relieves his fellows from vermin. They removed from 

 me daily fifty to one hundred of the small blood-suckers. 



So I passed many " painful" days and sleepless nights 

 on the island, which I named Heck Island, in honor 

 of my friend Dr. Ludwig Heck, but the buffaloes man- 

 aged to keep out of my sight. It was not timidity that 

 made them so cautious, for the buffalo is strong and an 

 excellent fighter, but they were made careful by experi- 

 ence not to expose themselves to the flash of the rifle 

 and the touch of the poisoned arrow. 



Still I persisted in waiting patiently, though many 

 of my natives began to suffer from malaria. To keep 

 well myself I increased my daily doses of quinine. 



As a pastime during the evenings and nights, my 

 men and I fished for crocodiles with line and hook. I 

 had connected the island with the right bank, also, by 

 means of trees cut down on the island and the bank. 

 The trunks of the enormous trees and their intertwined 

 tops formed a kind of river-bar, above and below which 

 gathered numerous reptiles. I had some shark - hooks 



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