218 FROM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



hardly realises it except by the view becoming more extensive 

 and by the streams running from the west instead of from the 

 east as hitherto. As one descends on the farther side, the 

 vegetation becomes more tropical, thick belts of forest, full 

 of the rubber vine, hide the streams, where many of the 

 birds for the first time belong to the forest fauna. 



At Krebeje we fell into the kind hands of Monsieur 

 Gaboriaud, the Administrateur, who showed us much 

 hospitality, pressing us to stay as long as we liked. But 

 much as we would have enjoyed prolonging our visit, the life 

 of the bush called us, and Gosling set out in the direction 

 of Kemmo to find elephant, while I started for a group of 

 isolated, ironstone hills, known as the Kaga Djirri, situated 

 twenty-five miles west of the Post. There are some ten 

 hills in all, lying about a mile apart ; perhaps they might 

 be better described as kopjes, for the highest is only 400 ft. 

 Three miles distant to the south, the River Tomi, swollen 

 to the width of fifteen yards by small affluents from the 

 hills, winds away eastward. 



From a distance the hills looked bare and easy to climb, 

 but the grass that filled the valleys and crept up the slopes 

 was so high and thick that in order to ascend them I had to 

 cut paths, sometimes using the knife, at others throwing 

 forward the weight of my body in order to beat the grass 

 down. After a time, as each hill was opened up by a path, 

 I could go straight to my collecting-ground and avoid the 

 long grass of the plains. 



In this country I spent a most enjoyable time and ob- 

 tained forty-eight specimens in all, of which twenty species 

 were new to my collection. This was satisfactory, for the 



