342 JAS. J. SIMPSON—ENTOMOLOGICAL 
but this constituted a record. ‘Two political officers arrived at Ankpa several 
days before my visit. They left Lokoja, each having a pony, on the 25th of 
December. These ponies were examined at Lokoja before leaving, and were 
pronounced as evidently free from trypanosomiasis ; yet within ten days of 
their arrival in Bassa Province both showed distinet symptoms of this disease. 
The only part of the Province traversed during this time was the main road 
from Ghebe to Ankpa. One of them had been sent away before my visit to 
Ankpa, but, on January 7th, the blood of the other was found to be swarming 
with trypanosomes. Through the kindness of the owner (Mr. Smith), this pony 
was lent to me for my interpreter, who was unable to walk, and it accompanied 
me to Ghebe. Prior to this, nothing had been done in the way of treatment, 
but during the journey to Ghebe it received full doses of arsenic and mercury 
daily. Owing, perhaps, to the advanced stage of the disease, the animal showed 
no signs of improvement, but rather the reverse, and although I was unable to 
follow up the case I am of the opinion that it also fell a victim to trypanosomiasis 
in Bassa. 
It may be worthy of note here that my own pony, which accompanied me 
from the middle of November throughout my tour to Kateri, down the Garara 
River and through Bassa, and which was dosed three times a day with mereury 
and arsenic, showed no trace of trypanosomiasis when I sent him hack to 
Zungeru from Lokoja in the middle of January. 
Ankpa to Ghebe. 
The distance from Ankpa to Lafia is about twenty-one miles. The road runs 
through very thick bush practically the whole way. At Amakutu, about nine 
miles from Ankpa, there is a small stream, and there G. palpalis occurs. From 
Amakutu to Lafia no water is crossed until about a mile from the rest-house, 
where a stream of considerable size, the Okura, about 40 yards wide and 2 feet 
deep in the dry season, flows to the Anambra. The town of Lafia practically 
commences here, and is scattered in groups of about a dozen huts over an area 
of more than 2 miles in diameter. The bed of the river Okura is very sandy, 
and the road for over half a mile from the ford is composed of very fine sand. 
The rest-house is situated on the edge of a kurimi, where there is a ford, and 
where the natives wash and obtain their water. One G. palpalis was caught at 
7.30 a.m. in the rest-house, a distance of 100 yards from the kurimi. It would 
be well when this camp has to be rebuilt if it were removed some considerable 
distance further from the kurimi. I spent several hours at the ford of the River 
Okura, a tributary of the Anambra, in the kurimi where there was a continuous 
procession of women coming and going, and at all times G. palpalis and Chrysops 
silacea were abundant. The bush was very high and dense and the sun’s rays 
hardly penetrated to the watering place. When no women were actually at the 
water, the majority of the tsetse retreated to the bush, and only an isolated 
specimen or two could be seen, but as soon as any women came to draw water 
they were immediately attacked. Never did I see any woman come and go 
without a tsetse alighting on her. This part of the native women’s work conse- 
quently renders them much more liable to infection by tsetse than is the case 
with the men, whose duties keep them more on the farms and further from 
tsetse-haunts. 
