The Eastern Congo 



We were fortunate at this juncture in meeting with Mr 

 Gibbons, a hardy Uganda settler and elephant-hunter, who 

 had just completed a ten-months' hunting trip in the Ituri 

 Forest and the long-grass country bordering the land of 

 the Bahuni, and who therefore had a lot of useful informa- 

 tion to impart, besides entertaining us both with many in- 

 teresting tales of the wild life he had led since first visiting 

 Africa, thirty years ago. He had with him many fine tusks 

 of elephants, shot both in the long-grass country and in 

 the virgin forest, the difference in the colour of the ivory 

 being very striking. For, whereas the tusks from the former 

 region were of the ordinary creamy-white colour, those 

 from the forest were of such a dark brown as to be almost 

 black ; then again there were tusks intermediate between 

 these two colours, shot in a district where the long-grass 

 country borders on the forest. Although I suppose this 

 " black " ivory must be well known to ivory turners and 

 brokers, I have seen no mention of it elsewhere, therefore 

 a few other notes will be found concerning it in the chapter 

 on elephants farther on in this book. 



To the fact that Mr. Gibbons was the first Englishman 

 we had met since leaving Kigoma in July, and also owing 

 to the extreme kindness of Monsieur Ballez, the Belgian 

 customs officer, postmaster, J. P., policeman and tax-collector 

 rolled into one, our short stay at Kasindi passed very 

 pleasantly, but so much does the nomadic life get into the 

 blood that we were pleased to be thinking about moving 

 on once more — to feel again the " fever of the horizon," as 

 some other traveller has so aptly called it. 



It was now the beginning of December and the season of 

 the heavy rains approaching. We had to submit at intervals 



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