WADELAI 
389 
CH. XIV] 
Elephant hunters face death at every turn—from fever, 
from the assaults of warlike native tribes, from their 
conflicts with their giant quarry ; and the unending 
strain on their health and strength is tremendous. 
At noon the following day we stopped at the deserted 
station of Wadelai, still in British territory. There 
have been outposts of white mastery on the Upper Nile 
for many years, but some of them are now abandoned, 
for as yet there has been no successful attempt at such 
development of the region as would alone mean per¬ 
manency of occupation. The natives whom we saw 
offered a sharp contrast to those of Uganda ; we were 
again back among wild savages. Near the landing at 
Wadelai was a group of thatched huts surrounded by 
a fence; there were small fields of mealies and beans, 
cultivated by the women, and a few cattle and goats ; 
while big wickerwork fish-traps showed that the river 
also offered a means of livelihood. Both men and 
women were practically naked ; some of the women 
entirely so except for a few beads. Here we were 
joined by an elephant hunter, Quentin Grogan, who 
was to show us the haunts of the great square-mouthed 
rhinoceros, the so-called white rhinoceros, of the Lado, 
the only kind of African heavy game which we had 
not yet obtained. We were allowed to hunt in the 
Lado, owing to the considerate courtesy of the Belgian 
Government, for which I was sincerely grateful. 
After leaving Wadelai we again went downstream. 
The river flowed through immense beds of papyrus. 
Beyond these on either side were rolling plains, gradually 
rising in the distance into hills or low mountains. The 
plains were covered with high grass, dry and withered ; 
and the smoke here and there showed that the natives, 
according to their custom, were now burning it. There 
