451 
CH. xv] THE BAHR EL GHAZAL 
at less than two hundred yards, although I could still 
only see his horns, I knew where his body was ; and 
this time I killed him. We gave most of the meat to 
the Nuer. He was an utterly wild savage, and when 
Cuninghame suddenly lit a match he was so frightened 
that it was all we could do to keep him from bolting. 
Kermit went on to try for a doe, but had bad luck, 
twice killing a spikebuck by mistake, and did not get 
back to the boat until long after dark. 
The following day we were in the mouth of the Bahr 
el Ghazal. It ran sluggishly through immense marshes, 
which stretched back from the river for miles on either 
hand, broken here and there by flats of slightly higher 
land with thorn-trees. The whale-billed storks were 
fairly common, and were very conspicuous as they stood 
on the quaking surface of the marsh, supported by their 
long-toed feet. After several fruitless stalks and much 
following through the thick marsh grass, sometimes up 
to our necks in water, I killed one with the Springfield 
at a distance of one hundred and thirty yards, and 
Kermit, after missing one standing, cut it down as it rose 
with his Winchester *30 to *40. These whalebills had 
in their gizzards, not only small fish, but quite a number 
of the green blades of the marsh grass. The Arabs call 
them the “ Father of the Shoe,” and Europeans call 
them shoebills as well as whalebills. The Bahr el 
Ghazal was alive with water-fowl, saddle-bill storks, 
sacred and purple ibis, many kinds of herons, cormorants, 
plover, and pretty tree-ducks, which twittered instead 
of quacking. There were sweet-scented lotus water- 
lilies in the ponds. A party of waterbuck cows and 
calves let the steamer pass within fifty yards without 
running. 
We went back to Lake No, where we met another 
