GAME 91 



down in the grass of the plain as they joined in the 

 flight. 



Except when on the move the only game we could 

 see, as a rule, were giraffe. Herds of ten to forty were 

 common. I fear I will be dubbed a dreamer, or worse, 

 when I state that one day a herd, which numbered 

 from 500 to 800, followed the gunboat so closely that 

 we could distinguish the markings on their heads. 

 They evidently took our yellow funnel for the neck 

 of their Mahdi. This herd moved in quite a military 

 formation. The thick mass in the centre was sur- 

 rounded by advanced guard, flankers, &c. That it 

 should have followed us is not extraordinary, for the 

 giraffe is intensely curious. The numbers, no doubt, 

 were made up by the amalgamation of lots of small 

 herds we had passed. 



My boy, an Omdurman-bred Dinka, thought, from 

 their lolloping gait, that there must be a lot of thorns 

 about, as they appeared to him all lame. Getting out 

 to shoot was no pleasure. The river, which con- 

 tinued to be about twenty feet deep in the centre, 

 was four feet deep at*the sides for many yards inland, 

 and, as far as Sharpies or I penetrated, the country 

 was always at least a few inches under water. 



Further up thin sudd covered the river, leaving a 

 waterway of about fifty yards, and two blocks of a 

 heavier sort of sudd came floating past us. A bit 

 later we came to a broad belt of it, which, fortunately, 

 was already on the move, so we got through it without 

 many hours' delay. 



The bush on the banks was now interspersed with 



