CHAPTER XXXIV 



EXPLORATION OF THE RIVER YEI 



After the easy travelling of the last few days from Faraggi 

 along a well-made road with comfortable huts to sleep in at 

 night, followed by the good fare provided for me at Yei I 

 felt my energy return, and the sight of the httle river flowing 

 within 600 yards of the station put into my head the idea of 

 reconnoitring to find out if I could use it as my road to the 

 Nile. The little mountain stream sparlding and tumbhng 

 over rocks attracted me strangely, perhaps because my days 

 for the past two and a half years had been spent on rivers, 

 whose life had become a part of my life ; and so it was that 

 the desire rose in me to explore this stream and watch it 

 grow from day to day and pass from change to change imtil 

 it reached the Nile. 



I returned to Yei hardly liking to tell the " boys " of my 

 new resolution, for they all thought that their work was now 

 finished. I had put away my collecting-guns and they had 

 hailed this as a favourable omen and were looking forward 

 to an easy five days' trek to Redjaf on the Nile. How they 

 must have cursed this little river for flowing across my path ! 

 The next day I set out with Jose to explore it by the bank. 

 At this point the Yei is twenty-five yards wide and some 

 fifty miles from its source in Mount Watti in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Wadelai. It had never been explored, and 



