110 ALONG LAKE RUDOLF 



distance off, but presently one of the men landed and ap- 

 proached our people withm about ten paces. We could watch 

 the whole thing quite easily, the dark figures standing out 

 clearly against the light background of water and sky. After 

 a long delay our emissaries disappeared behind some hills, 

 whilst the canoes were steered for the nearest island. In each 

 canoe were four natives, three of whom plied double paddles. 

 As far as we could make out, there was a village on this island 

 consisting of some thirty primitive hayrick-shaped huts made 

 of stones and grass. A number of canoes lay on the beach, and 

 we could also see some twelve or fifteen little yellow curs. 



As Lembasso and Sokoni did not reappear we continued 

 our march along the shore without them. The lake remained 

 shallow near the beach, but the water was not quite so clear 

 now, and we could see a few algse growing in it, whilst here 

 and there the shore was strewn with dry grass washed up from 

 the lake. In the numerous creeks were many crocodiles and a 

 few hippopotami, whilst their shores were haunted by immense 

 numbers of birds, including geese, ducks, flamingoes, cormo- 

 rants, divers, herons, ibises, plovers, gulls, storks, and lapwings. 

 The surrounding districts were however perfectly bare of vege- 

 tation. In one of the creeks the Count succeeded in brinoin^' 

 down two hippopotami, each with a shot in the shoulder from 

 the 500 Express rifle, before they could reach the deep water. 

 Caravan men are very fond of the flesh of the hippopotamus, 

 and our people flung themselves into the water with shouts of 

 joy to fetch the unexpected booty, regardless of the crocodiles, 

 which were bigger than any we had seen elsewhere, and it was 

 not long before the colossal corpses were dragged on to the beach 

 to be divided, an operation which generally takes a couple of 

 hours, and to-day we had to spend that time without any 

 shelter in the very hottest portion of the day. 



Lembasso and Sokoni now returned, bringing with them 



