In Wildest Africa ^ 



with the position of the sun, alter again and again the 

 whole appearance of this world of life, and from minute 

 to minute it presents new riddles to any one who has not 

 had years of experience in the wilderness. When the 

 glittering light of the midday hours is tiring and confusing 

 the sight, one often can hardly tell for certain whether 

 it be a living multitude stretching out in the distance 

 before one, or whether the play of the sunlight is 

 imparting a semblance of life to scattered clumps of 

 thorn bushes. 



Four rhinoceroses which I now descry moving across 

 the plain in the distance, and a flock of ostriches which 

 I can plainly make out with the field-glass, change shape 

 and colour so often that it is astonishing to see them. 

 According to their movements and position with respect to 

 the sun they appear to be of a blending blue and grey, or 

 intensely black, and then again almost invisible and the 

 colour of the earth, but always changing, always different 

 from what they were the moment before. 



To realise all this one must in fancy place oneself in 

 the condition of exaggerated susceptibility to nervous 

 excitement that results from the intensity of the light, 

 together with the climate, and the unusual degree of 

 hardship. All this produces the greater effect because 

 one has to do one's work in solitude and loneliness, and 

 is cut oft' from all interchange of ideas with one's fellows. 



Here, where the flora makes so poor a display, the 

 fauna is abundant. What a sight it affords for the 

 ornithologists ! 



Amongst the herds of zebras our European stork 



28 



