THE OKAVANGO RIVER 31 



ful stag from the seat of the wagon, the buck 

 making no attempt to move even when Charlie 

 stopped the bullocks. Wildebeestes and sassaby 

 were fairly numerous also, and I shot an odd one 

 of each kind : there were too many of the native 

 population about for any chance of the meat being 

 wasted. 



There came a day when we saw the spoor of four 

 lions. They must have travelled along the track 

 for several miles, after a thunderstorm, and one of 

 the four, it was plain, was a very big male. 

 Numerous were the crocodiles we saw in the river 

 and pools, and the sight of one of these fellows 

 cruising slowly about will discourage the most 

 enthusiastic bather. It was very hot weather, 

 and, but for these brutes, we would have enjoyed 

 many a good " bogey " in the warm blue water. 

 We noted, too, as we began to get down towards 

 the Quito, a good deal of elephant spoor along 

 the frontage, though none of it was fresh ; in one 

 place what must have been a fair-sized herd had 

 apparently been holding a kind of corroboree 

 across the track in the wet. 



When -the small Portuguese posts of Bunya and 

 Sambia (at each of which two Portuguese white 

 soldiers and half a dozen natives are kept) were 

 passed, we had worked down as far as Diriko, a 

 Portuguese post at the junction of the Quito and 

 Okavango. The fort is splendidly situated on a 

 high ridge, the big Quito river running round three 

 sides of it. I was anxious to cross the river as 



