26 FROM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



the river. Beyond the belt of wood there has nearly always 

 been the typical African bush and it is much the same here 

 as in South-east Africa. Most of the elephant grass, which is 

 thick, woody stuflE like bamboo, has been burnt and the fresh 

 green is now ankle-deep. The bush reminds me very much 

 of old orchard land. Sometimes one feels one would never 

 get tired of exploring its endless succession of nooks and 

 glades." 



The skin that my brother refers to in his letter was that 

 of a very fine dog-faced baboon, which caused much excite- 

 ment among the " boys " when it was brought into camp, 

 as they had not had meat for days and to watch them wrang- 

 ling and jabbering over the carcase made their devouring of 

 it seem almost a degree of cannibalism. 



There was not much incident about our journey up the 

 Benue, for, as my brother's letter has described, there were 

 no excitements of the chase. Of course, in those early days 

 of the Expedition every little thing made a deep impression 

 at the time upon us all, for ouj senses were strung to a keen 

 pitch of observation and our minds recorded pictures that 

 were beautiful and strange ; but their colours and details 

 are all given in the word — African river, and appear to me now 

 rather distant and blurred behind the crowd of events that 

 gathered afresh with each succeeding day. Sometimes the 

 others found relief from the monotony of sitting in the boats 

 for miles of changeless river and got grand exercise by pohng. 

 My brother was especially keen at the work and would stick 

 to it for hours at a time, stripped and ready to dive and 

 retrieve the birds I shot from the boat. He was also very 

 fond of bathing and used to go down with Jose daily, as he 



