THE RHINOCEROS OF THE LADO 397 
to their custom, were now burning it. There was no forest; 
but scattered over the plains were trees, generally thorns, 
but other kinds also, among them palms and euphorbias. 
The following morning, forty-eight hours after leaving 
Butiaba, on Lake Albert Nyanza, we disembarked from 
the little flotilla which had carried us—a crazy little steam 
launch, two sail-boats, and two big row-boats. We made 
our camp close to the river’s edge, on the Lado side, in a 
thin grove of scattered thorn-trees. The grass grew rank 
and tall all about us. Our tents were pitched, and the grass 
huts of the porters built, on a kind of promontory, the main 
stream running past one side, while on the other was a 
bay. The nights were hot, and the days burning; the 
mosquitoes came with darkness, sometimes necessitating 
our putting on head nets and gloves in the evenings, and 
they would have made sleep impossible if we had not had 
mosquito biers. Nevertheless it was a very pleasant camp, 
and we thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a wild, lonely coun¬ 
try, and we saw no human beings except an occasional 
party of naked savages armed with bows and poisoned 
arrows. Game was plentiful, and a hunter always enjoys a 
permanent camp in a good game country; for while the 
expedition is marching, his movements must largely be 
regulated by those of the safari, whereas at a permanent 
camp he is foot-loose. 
There was an abundance of animal life, big and little, 
about our camp. In the reeds, and among the water- 
lilies of the bay, there were crocodiles, monitor lizards six 
feet long, and many water birds—herons, flocks of beauti¬ 
ful white egrets, clamorous spur-winged plover, sacred 
ibis, noisy purple ibis, saddle-billed storks, and lily trotters 
