VII 
SECOND EXPEDITION 
157 
of the cool, inexhaustible flood, instead of facing the toil¬ 
some journey before me through the parched and thirsty tracts 
ahead. 
It struck me now that I had not made the most of my 
opportunities on the south bank of the river; but as there 
seemed little chance of finding elephants on this side, and it 
was now too late to return to hunt on the other, I set to work, 
while waiting for my caravan, to weigh and adjust the donkey¬ 
loads, it being most important to have each pair (one for each 
pannier) exactly the same weight. While doing this rather 
trying work in the burning sun, on an empty stomach (a bad 
thing), I got a fresh touch of fever. However, I could not 
afford to be ill now; so, though feeling fit for nothing and my 
head very painful, I disregarded the attack and worked it off. 
The morning my men were to arrive, I went up stream a little 
way to shoot a hippo for them. My first shot passed just over 
one’s head, but the second got it, as I could see by the way it 
turned over. So, returning to camp, I kept a look-out, and in 
two or three hours I saw it coming floating down. Singing 
out to the men, several of them plunged into the river with a 
rope to meet it, and, before it got far past the landing-place, 
succeeded in making fast to it; but in trying to haul it in the 
rope broke. Luckily, though, it got stranded in shallow water 
near the bank a little lower down ; and, being a fat cow, it 
came in particularly handy ; for my men from Mtiya’s had just 
arrived opposite, so that, on their being ferried over later on, 
all hands were made happy. 
It only now remained to cross the donkeys, which arrived 
next day. We, on our side, made our way over to the top 
island, to do which we had to ford several channels. The first, 
where the current was very strong, we crossed by the aid of a 
rope stretched across and made fast at each end (even then it 
was no .easy matter, as the bottom was all boulders) ; another 
was up to our necks, but with hardly any current and a better 
bottom. Having arrived on the bank of the main channel, the 
