FROM FORT LAMY TO THE TOGBAU HILLS 169 



mid-day with four fine specimens of the little rock dassie which 

 has turned out to be new to science and which has been named 

 Procavia shariensis. Although I carried no " ju-ju," I was 

 not less fortunate, for I obtained a new rock thrush which has 

 been named after my brother {Cossypha claudi). It was 

 hard work climbing from rock to rock, often hauling oneself 

 up on to a ledge only to find one's advance barred by a deep 

 chasm out of which innumerable bats fluttered up like pieces 

 of burnt paper. In these rambles I frequently came across 

 large round baskets, or grain stores, which — to secure them 

 against pillage — were placed on ledges of the rock accessible 

 only by secret paths known to the natives. My path was 

 very difficult, but I was seized with the craving which goads 

 on the mountaineer to gain the highest point and at length I 

 saw all the country lying far below me. 



A vast view of a barren country presented itself and my 

 mind was at once carried back to a similar occasion, when I 

 viewed the landscape from the top of the Keffi hills in Nigeria, 

 and I could not help being forcibly struck by the contrast 

 of the two scenes. There, as far as the eye could reach 

 stretched fields of corn, the surface of which was often broken 

 by clusters of hamlets where dwelt the happy harvesters, 

 while here on all sides to the distance lay a barren stretch of 

 bush and sand. 



But if there was not an aspect of fertility in the scene, the 

 black dots of natives working in their tiny corn-patches below 

 me presented a picture of peace where not many years ago 

 the noise of firearms resounded in these rocky hills, for it was 

 here that Rabeh, the black Napoleon of Africa, fought and 

 defeated the French. 



