HUNTING THE OKAPI 259 



experienced on entering the heart of the great forest for the 

 first time. All the senses seem awed, blinded as it were by the 

 sudden coming from the sunlight into the dark of the trees, 

 then gradually out of the gloom the vastness dawns upon 

 the mind, and although unable to see more than a few paces 

 through the dense growth one knows instinctively that one 

 is in a region that is forest, as the land is the land or the sea 

 the sea ; the very height and girth of the trees seem to tell of 

 its extent, as the hairs of a giant would tell his size. 



At first one gazes marvelling at the enormous stems and 

 strives to measure their height with head thrown far back, 

 but soon from their very number they cease to be objects of 

 wonder. The narrow native track, which is channelled deep 

 with the impressions of many human feet, winds through 

 thick undergrowth of dark, opaque leaves and hanging 

 creepers, in and out to avoid the great tree-boles and fallen 

 hmbs that glisten with moisture, while everywhere there 

 is the smell of mould loose and rich and muffled with 

 the fallen leaf of years. Sometimes the path passes 

 through a swamp that is the bed of the large-leaved plants 

 upon which the okapi loves to feed, and the squelch of foot- 

 steps startles into voice deep-croaking bull frogs that keep 

 on calling with a heave and sigh till the traveller has passed. 

 Presently, as if sprung from the ground, a string of natives 

 appear on the path ahead, their backs bent double under 

 loads of plantains ; all follow close on each other's heels, 

 afraid to go alone. Farther on, perhaps, at the side of the 

 track, the eye catches the white of a broken withy which 

 hunters have bent down for fear of losing their way, or a 

 party of birds of all kinds is seen threading their way through 



