80 A NATURALIST IN MID-AFRICA. 



The scene after dusk was very different. The 

 air was thick with mosquitoes ; vast clouds of the 

 males, with their feathery antenna?, were hovering 

 round the fire, and soon afterwards the females 

 began to dine. Bleep was impossible, and I had 

 to listen all night to the frog-chorus. An old bass 

 begins, Talk ! talk ! then the whole orchestra join 

 in, keeping perfect time, till an ambitious youngster 

 tries to lead himself, when some follow him and 

 some the original leader, and all is discord for a 

 minute or two. Then they stop and rest till the 

 original majestic Talk ! talk ! begins, and so on. 



Next morning we were carried over in canoes to 

 a chief's town, called Kuliahri, and on the very 

 inauspicious date, April 1, 1894, I was carried, 

 more dead than alive, to the base of Kuwenzori. 



-■- 



