425 
ch. xiv] COLOBUS MONKEYS 
feet high, the close-growing stems knit together by 
vines. As we drifted down, the green wall was con¬ 
tinually broken by openings, through which side streams 
from the great river rushed, swirling and winding, down 
narrow lanes and under low archways, into the dim 
mysterious heart of the vast reed-beds, where dwelt 
bird and reptile and water beast. In a shallow bay we 
came on two hippo cows with their calves, and a dozen 
crocodiles. I shot one of the latter—as I always do, 
when I get a chance—and it turned over and over, 
lashing with its tail as it sank. A half-grown hippo 
came up close by the boat and leaped nearly clear of 
the water; and in another place I saw a mother hippo 
swimming, with the young one resting half on its back. 
Another day Kermit came on some black and white 
Colobus monkeys. Those we had shot east of the Rift 
Valley had long mantles, and more white than black in 
their colouring; west of the Rift Valley they had less 
white and less of the very long hair; and here on the 
Nile the change had gone still farther in the same 
direction. On the west coast this kind of monkey is 
said to be entirely black. But we were not prepared 
for the complete change in habits. In East Africa the 
Colobus monkeys kept to the dense, cool, mountain 
forests, dwelt in the tops of the big trees, and rarely 
descended to the ground. Here, on the Nile, they 
lived in exactly such country as that affected by the 
smaller greenish-yellow monkeys, which we found along 
the Guaso Nyero for instance—country into which the 
East African Colobus never by any chance wandered. 
Moreover, instead of living in the tall timber, and never 
going on the ground except for a few yards, as in East 
Africa, here on the Nile they sought to escape danger 
by flight over the ground, in the scrub. Kermit found 
