BUFFALO 179 



in their main objective, yet the memory of those rambles 

 remains replete with incident and adventure. 



But fortune that is denied to systematic effort may 

 sometimes be vouchsafed to the easier category of chance. 



We were navigating" the great "Western Bend," 

 slowly coasting along the Nuer country, close-hauled 

 on the beam-wind, when the game-like look of certain 

 forests inflamed us with the resolve to make a great 

 effort to reach them. The difficulties of landing, common 

 to all White Nile, were here accentuated. The river 

 in these regions subdivides itself into several channels 

 separated by narrow but league-long islands, each 

 usually impassable by reason of the broad buttresses 

 of papyrus which outflank it. One such island now 

 interposed itself between us and our goal ; we could, 

 moreover, see from the mast-head that not only the 

 island itself but also the main shore beyond were 

 deeply bordered by heavy papyrus-barriers which might, 

 or rather, almost certainly would preclude all hope of 

 landing, even if we ever reached their outskirts. As 

 dusk fell, however, we imagined we had discovered a 

 sort of break or breachable channel through the obstruc- 

 tive island that might possibly be made negotiable for 

 the dinghy. We chanced the rest and anchored ; it 

 was a happy decision. 



By dawn, after stolid digging, we had cut a passage 

 through the intervening island and reached the open 

 water beyond ; but after crossing that channel, the mural 

 papyrus-barrier on the main shore appeared at first im- 

 pregnable. After cruising some distance along it, we 

 rejoiced to observe a slight break in its solid continuity. 

 This proved to be the private landing-place of a hippo- 

 potamus, a sort of tunnel winding for 50 yards through 

 floating swamp and submerged roots with deep water 

 between. Though neither pachydermatous nor amphibian, 

 we essayed the plunge. By aid of the oars and bottom- 

 boards of the dinghy, and after struggles when success or 



