2 FROM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



renowned Alpinist, finally to lower its crest beneath the foot 

 of the Duke of the Abruzzi. Other travellers have distin- 

 guished themselves in that form of exploration which depends 

 for its success upon a great knowledge of peoples and lan- 

 guages, men like Earth and Burton conquering the desert 

 by their powers of getting into touch with the people of the 

 caravans. The great humanitarian Livingstone followed the 

 map as it is expressed by the distribution of the tribes ; 

 while geographers, such as Stanley, have left the featureless 

 desert on one side and taken their ways by hills that make 

 beautiful undulating shadings, and rivers that embroider 

 with blue veinings, and lakes that shine like jewels — upon 

 the map. 



In Africa Lake Chad was the last gem that remained 

 uncut and wanting a proper setting. There it lay in the 

 desert waiting. For the last decade the attention of many 

 travellers had been turned to it, for the little that was known 

 of it was so mysterious that it appealed very much to the 

 imagination. The fact that it was a desert lake, with the 

 reason of its existence unexplained, stimulated speculations ; 

 also, it was known that there was an interesting people 

 inhabiting the islands, about whose existence and habits 

 very httle had been found out. All these facts attracted 

 me, and, there was the distribution of the fauna to establish, 

 with the hope that a locality, showing geographical pecu- 

 liarities, might also reveal marked differences in its fauna. 

 This last idea naturally took a strong hold of me, for I will 

 now confess that my ruling passion is ornithology, and all 

 my exploration might be described as taking the course of 

 the birds. Although the French had for years shown great 



