90 FROM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



had any notion of poling. Great was their disappointment 

 when out of the eight men I selected only two. These were 

 men of magnificent muscle, and one of them, by name Bukar, 

 stuck to me all the way to Khartoum. 



It did not take long to cross the bay and then we at once 

 commenced an attack on the reeds and maria bush, and 

 by the evening had cut a path for nearly two miles in a north- 

 east direction. This eventually brought us into a series of 

 large bays like the first, and the depth of water was 3 ft. 

 over pale grey mud. In the next two days we cut a distance 

 of six miles. This was harder work, for the growth was much 

 thicker ; tall reeds, maria bush and papyrus surrounding 

 us on all sides like a dense forest without end. But the 

 labour, hard as we found it, was nothing compared to 

 what we had been through in pulling the boats over 

 mud, for there was always sufficient water among the 

 reeds to enable the boats to go forward as the forest fell 

 before the axes of the men. During these operations we 

 were obliged to spend the nights huddled up in the 

 boats. Sleep was out of the question, for we were attacked 

 by hordes of mosquitoes and many of the men, maddened 

 with pain, preferred to sit up to their necks in water all night. 

 Consequently we were obliged to snatch our sleep in the day- 

 time, and so took a day off the reed- cutting every other day. 

 When the work was going forward there was no rest from the 

 mosquitoes day or night, for as we felled the reeds the insects 

 rose up in clouds from their sleep and attacked us angrily. 

 I observed three different species, one of which was as large 

 as a house-fly, very dark and with a transparent body which 

 grew to enormous size when distended with blood. But in 



