DISCOVERING A NEW INSECT 



At daybreak Selous and I woke at the same time, 

 and I shall never forget the look of astonishment on 

 his face when he exclaimed : " Why, Cherry, you have 

 turned black ! " I quickly sprang up and discovered 

 some large ticks in my clothing, which looked Hke 

 miniature tortoises — they were about the size of a 

 finger-nail. Altogether I found six of them, put them 

 in a match-box, and then discovered I had received 

 nineteen bites from the brutes. Each of these bites 

 had a surface poisoning, which ran six inches from 

 the wound and turned from blue-black to yellow. 

 I had a terrible time, as the bites began to bleed and 

 put me out of action before getting back to camp. 

 The doctors were absolutely puzzled, and sent me 

 to Nairobi for a blood test. For twelve days I was 

 under observation, but luckily no fever developed. 

 Dr. Ross, who had the case in hand, sent my specimens 

 to England, where they were discovered to be a new 

 species of spirilum tick. I hope they have not named 

 the loathsome insect after me ! 



Around the camp-fires with me at various times 

 in German East Africa were Selous, Outram, 

 Pretorious, Richardson, and Ryan,^ all lamous hunters. 



I 1 Selous was subsequently killed in action ; Outram was 

 killed by a lion after he had left me on my last expedition ; 

 Pretorious was reported dead, but fortunately this proved to be 

 an error — he is now (1923) again hunting big game in Africa ; 

 Richardson died immediately after the war on an expedition in 

 Rhodesia ; Ryan was killed in action. 



i 223 



