MY JOURNEY CONTINUED TO ASHAKA 215 



It was also the farthest point to wliich the boats were to 

 be taken before beino- carried by the main road, to be pnt 



ALLTGATA PIPERS AT BAUCHI 



together again at Gaidam for their journey down the Yo 

 river. 



The country round Bauchi underwent a change from 

 that tlrrough which I had but recently passed, taking on 

 a desert aspect with sparser bush, the characteristic acacia 

 and gum-tree appearing in numbers for the first time. The 

 fauna, too, began to have a sprinkling of Sudan forms and 

 it W2S here I got my first crested-lark. I did not travel by 

 the main road to Ashaka which goes north-east through 

 Gombe,, but struck away east by a little -known route through 

 Goram, Kufa, and Ako to the River Gongola. Following the 

 practice which I kept up through all my journeys, I paced 

 and counted every yard of the road, trdsing observations 



