Our Last "Safari" 



deep and broad, and the dark forest trees overhang it as if 

 they fain would clasp their giant limbs across. 



The Haulo* River comes down from the Uele-Ituri water- 

 shed through an unexplored valley and to the east of the 

 little known \\'amba forest, a stronghold of the elephant, 

 the red buffalo, the bongo, the okapi, the giant forest hog, 

 and the dwarf mountain elephant (the 3'iya of the Mombutu). 

 Here one hears talcs of curious animals perhaps unknown 

 to science — a few of them, however, recognisable from the 

 native descriptions, such as the water chevrotainj and the 

 tree hyrax. 



Through the English papers we had of course heard of 

 the brontosaurus and the proposed expeditions that had 

 set forth, or were about to set forth, to find it. Of course 

 amongst them there was the inevitable American expedition 

 which, it was said, had offered a million or two for a specimen, 

 dead or alive. Then there was, I think, an English army 

 captain, lately demobilised, who, it was reported, was taking 

 a Mannlicher rifle and a shot-gun — or was it a Lewis gun ? — 

 as well as his pet fox-terrier, to aid him in his search amongst 

 the swamps of Lake Leopold IL As we now know, nothing 

 came of it and nothing more was heard of the expeditions ; 

 possibly they did not carry their search far enough or did 

 not reach the right place. Regarding the origin of the report 

 of such an animal having been seen, the yarn goes that a 

 prospector with a penchant for practical joking met an 

 American missionary on " safari," to whom he spun a yarn 

 about a fabulous monster he had seen the night before. The 



* This river is named the Epulu on modern maps of the Belgian Congo, 

 but it is known locally as the Hawlo or Haulo. 



t The native name of the chevrotain is r.gtingu and the tree-hyrax 

 {Procavia mannyta) is named nguyu. 



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