The Eastern Congo 



be some such sudden onslaught as the one I have 

 suggested. 



Entomologically I found the neighbourhood of Lake 

 Chohoa very interesting but as I arrived there at the end of 

 the dry season when insect hfe is more or less dormant, I 

 did not succeed in making so good a collection as I might 

 otherwise have done. As the regions through which we 

 had now passed — rather contrary to expectations, I admit — 

 had not proved very rich in insect fauna, I decided to reach 

 Lake Kivu with as little delay as possible. To this end 

 I paid off our old carriers and with the help of the Wliite 

 Fathers obtained a fresh lot of men to take us to Nyanza, 

 four days' journey away, the residence of Juhi, Sultan of 

 Ruanda. Having arranged the day previous for canoes 

 to be in readiness at the crossing of the Akanyaru, we turned 

 due west from Kaninya Mission and reached the east bank 

 of that river as the first storm of the rainy season was about 

 to break. The Akanyaru River, which here flows south 

 to north through a hilly country covered with sparse bush, 

 joins the Kagera below Kigali and is overgrown on both 

 banks by many square miles of papyrus beds, through which 

 our caravan pushed its way with considerable difficvdty. 

 Heat, engendered by the fermenting morass below and the 

 sun above, became very trying to the temper, especially so 

 as the bent papyrus stems were either tripping one up or 

 poking into one's ribs. Clear water was presently reached 

 but proved to be no more than a breathing space sixty yards 

 wide at the outside, after which we again had to plunge into 

 the fevered swamp. After a while we came through and 

 mounting the high west bank, were able to look back over 

 the sea of papjoiis through which our carriers were still 



38 



