24: 



FROM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



and more comfortably than at first, the reason being that our 

 rather motley crowd of boats and crews took some days before 

 they shook down and began to pull all together. The whole 

 expedition is in the best of health ; myself, I have never 



JO.Si:; .SKINNING BIRDS 



been better. The Lazenby provision boxes are excellent 

 and each one holds out much longer than it was expected to 

 do, although all the game we have got has been a hartebeest 

 and a certain number of guinea-fowl. I can't make out why 

 we have had so little to shoot. Every one had said that the 

 country just about here was simply teeming. Almost every 

 afternoon and evening all five of us have scoured the country 

 for three or four miles around, and, although there have been 

 signs of plenty of buffalo and antelope, no one has fired 

 more than a few long shots at them. Two evenings ago, 

 after four hours walking, I found a herd of about twenty 



