-^ In a Primeval Forest 



rainy season. In the dry season they present insuperable 

 obstacles to navigation of any kind. 



The basin of the Djipe Lake in the upper reaches of the 

 Pangani, and the Pangani swamps below its lower reaches, 

 formed a kind of natural preserve for every variety of the 

 marvellous fauna of East Africa. It was a veritable El 

 Dorado for the European sportsman, but one attended by 

 all kinds of perils and difficulties. The explorer found 

 manifold compensation, however, for everything in the 

 unexampled opportunities afforded him for the study of 

 wild life in the midst of these stifling marshes and lagoons. 

 The experience of listening night after night to the myriad 

 voices of the wilderness is beyond description. 



Hippopotami were extraordinarily numerous at one time 

 in the comparatively small basin of the DjIpe Lake. In 

 all my long sojourn by the banks of the Pangani I only 

 killed two, and I never again went after any. There were 

 such numbers, however, round DjIpe Lake ten years ago 

 that you often saw dozens of them together at one time. 

 I fear that by now they have been nearly exterminated. 



Here, as everywhere else, the natives have levied but 

 a small tribute upon the numbers of the wild animals, a 

 tribute In keeping with the nature of their primitive 

 weapons. Elephants used regularly to make their way 

 down to the water-side from the Kilimanjaro woods. My 

 old friend Ngruruman, the Ndorobo chieftain, used to lie in 

 wait for them, with his followers, concealed in the dense 

 woods along the river. But the time came when the 

 elephants ceased to make their appearance. The old 

 hunter, whose body bore signs of many an encounter 



oo7 



