The Eastern Congo 



Mountains, which here rise steeply up from the flat plain. 

 Game was now seen literally in thousands, which was not 

 surprising as the grass was young and green from recent rains. 

 Whereas we had before seen them in scattered bunches, 

 they were now in herds of two and three hundred strong ; 

 buffaloes and elephants were also included in the menagerie. 

 The former were to be seen in strings, wandering down in 

 Indian file to some waterhole, or standing about under the 

 bright green acacia thorns in groups of grey and black, 

 their swinging tails switching away the flies. The elephants 

 looked gigantic in the heat mirage, and stood apart on the 

 edge of a shallow river that here debouches from the moun- 

 tains, with that baggy, misfitting-trousers kind of look, the 

 while they lazily flapped their huge ears. 



We had reached a hunter's paradise of the wildest and 

 most remote description, lacking in nothing dear to the heart 

 of such savages as my wife and myself. The boat, engaged 

 to meet us at a small fishing village on the shores of Lake 

 Edward, was not due for some days yet, so we decided to 

 give ourselves up to the fascination of the game-haunted 

 solitudes around us and, for myself, to take advantage of 

 the opportunities afforded for moving picture photography. 



We decided to make camp on the stream where the 

 elephants were, and on our way thither, my wife, who was 

 several yards ahead of Mr. Fourget and myself, ran plumb 

 into a great herd of buffalo, which was hidden from view 

 behind a screen of long grass. She was accompanied only 

 by one boy, whom she cutely sent back to warn me to bring 

 along my movie-camera. This I got fixed up in double 

 quick time, and carrying it over my shoulder, soon joined her 

 close to the drowsy herd of buffalo, which fortunately, owing 



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