A FIRST PRIZE OF SUDAN 155 



A MEMORABLE AFTERNOON WITH SADDLEBACK 



Upon the sixth of February, 1914 despite the self- 

 denying resolve just recorded we had searched a well- 

 reputed haunt of " Megaceros." Starting before dawn 

 we hunted till past noontide ; yet never a sight of the 

 sable syren rewarded those seven hours' toil, and by one 

 o'clock Candace was under way. Two hours later I was 

 busy writing 1 in my cabin an excited report electrified 

 the atmosphere. Within view from the poop stood a 

 troop of a dozen saddleback, including two rams, whose 

 jet-black hides set off snow-white withers. Both these 

 rams, as revealed by the binoculars, carried thoroughly 

 warrantable heads ; moreover, the herd appeared to be 

 grazing- on relatively solid ground. Hence orders to 

 "close with the shore" promptly followed, and within a 

 mile we discovered an available landing-place. 



Oh! the fraud of appearances! What we had innocently 

 mistaken for firm ground proved but little better than 

 bottomless bog. The first step had been knee-deep ; 

 within 50 yards we were mired to the middle. Nature's 

 camouflage was perfect. Above, charred stalks of papyrus 

 and a tangle of rank swamp-grasses served to half conceal 

 the Serbonian bog beneath deep slime, foetid and 

 stinking, intercepted by criss-crossed canes that tripped 

 one's feet and arrested every step. Moreover, at short 

 intervals, yet deeper khors threatened absolutely to bar 

 all further progress. The venture appeared hopeless but, 

 having put our hands to the plough, we proceeded. 



The game being a mile back, was at first beyond 

 sight. Through those intervening screens of tall canes 

 and bulrush often on hands and knees we forced a 

 painful way ; rampikes of splintered cane or spear-grass 

 pierced clothes and flesh alike, while the armoured shafts 

 of Oom-suff (Carex) fairly pincushioned arms and hands 

 with a thousand barbed spicules. We won through in 



