342 JAS. J. SIMPSON ENTOMOLOGICAL 



but this constituted a record. Two political officers iirrived at Ankpa several 

 days before my visit. They left Lokoja, each having a jwny, ou the 25th of 

 December. These ponies were examined at Lokoja before leaving, and were 

 pronounced as evidently free from trypanosomiasis ; yet within ten days of 

 their arrival in Bassa Province both showed distinct symptoms of this disease. 

 The only part of the Province traversed during this time was the main road 

 from Ghebe to Ankpa. One of them had been sent away before my visit to 

 Ankpa, but, on January 7th, the blood of the other was found to be swarming 

 with ti-ypanosomes. Through the kindness of the owner (Mr. Smith), this pony 

 was lent to me for my interpreter, who was unable to walk, and it accompanied 

 me to Ghebe. Prior to this, nothing had been done in the way of treatment, 

 but during the journey to Ghebe it received full doses of arsenic and mercury 

 daily. Owing, perhaps, to the advanced stage of the disease, the animal showed 

 no signs of improvement, but rather the reverse, and although I was unable to 

 follow up the case I am of the opinion that it also fell a victim to trypanosomiasis 

 in Bassa. 



It may be worthy of note here that my own pony, which accompanied me 

 from the middle of November throughout my tour to Kateri, down the Garara 

 River and through Bassa, and which was dosed three times a day with mercury 

 and arsenic, showed no trace of trypanosomiasis when I sent him back to 

 Zimgeru from Lokoja in the middle of January. 



Ankpa to Ghehe. 



The distance from Ankpa to Lafia is about twenty-one miles. The road runs 

 through very thick bush practically the whole way. At Amakutu, about nine 

 miles from Ankpa, there is a small stream, and there G. jJnlpclis occurs. From 

 Amakutu to Lafia no water is crossed until about a mile from the rest-house, 

 where a stream of considerable size, the Olaira, about 40 yards wide and 2 feet 

 deep in the dry season, flows to the Anambra. The town of Lafia practically 

 commences here, and is scattered in groups of about a dozen huts over an area 

 of more than 2 miles in diameter. The bed of the river Okura is very sandy, 

 and the road for over half a mile from the ford is composed of very fine sand. 

 The rest-house is situated on the edge of a kurimi, where there is a ford, and 

 where the natives wash and obtain their water. One G. palpalis was caught at 

 7.3,0 a.m. in the rest-house, a distance of 100 yards from the kurimi. It would 

 be well when this camp has to be rebuilt if it were removed some considerable 

 distance further from the kurimi. I spent several hours at the ford of the River 

 Okura, a tributary of the Anambra, in the kurimi where there was a continuous 

 procession of women coming and going, and at all times G. jmlp/ili.': and Chrysops 

 silacea were abundant. The bush was very high and dense and the sun's rays 

 hardly penetrated to the watering place. When no women were actually at the 

 water, the majority of the tsetse retreated to the bush, and only an isolated 

 specimen or two could be seen, but as soon as any women came to draw water 

 they were immediately attacked. Never did I see any woman come and go 

 without a tsetse alighting on her. This part of the native women's work conse- 

 quently renders them much more liable to infection by tsetse than is the case 

 with the men, whose duties keep them more on the farms and further from 

 tsetse-haunts. 



