Okapi Hunting 



and " cocked " that all-seeing eye of his ; that uncanny 

 night-crier the Potto lemur turned in his hollow tree and 

 thought (like ourselves, only for a different reason !) — if he 

 woke up at all — that " Thank goodness, this hasn't come 

 at night ! " The chimpanzi sought his most protected " plat- 

 form," and crossing his arms formed that natural hair cloak 

 of his, from off which the rain would presently run, and the 

 monkey families huddled close together beneath the great 

 clumps of elephant's ear fern. The one animal perhaps 

 that recked nothing of the storm was the jaguar-like forest 

 leopard of the Semliki* — callous, collected, cruel, caring 

 nothing for the giant breath that, as yet, only whispered 

 among the huge creepers about him or for the pealing thunder 

 of the coming tempest. He thought this a fine opportunity to 

 steal a march on his implacable, albeit more sensitive enemies, 

 the bandar-log crouching on high beneath the fern. 



We hammered in our tent-pegs and packed our belongings 

 as best we might to weather the hurricane that was now 

 upon us. For half an hour or more we seemed to be engulfed 

 in a whirlwind, round the edges of which the shafts of lightning 

 chased one another, tearing and splitting the tall trees around 

 us, with blinding flashes of electricity terrifying to witness. 

 Hardy as my wife had become, and strong man as I am, 

 we both felt, after it was all over, that we had had the breath 

 knocked right out of us and that this was the occasion for a 

 little stimulant, in which the reader may rest assured wc both 

 indulged. 



With us at this time was a fat, pleasant Wanandi native 

 whom we had engaged at Ruchuru on Lake Edward as my 



* A remarkable sub-species of leopard discovered by the Duke of the 

 Abbruzzi's expedition. — H H. J. 



^57 



