350 
ELEPHANTS IN THE LAKE. 
[chap. XII.' 
although I have tasted crocodile, I could never succeed 
in swallowing it; the combined flavour of bad fish, 
rotten flesh, and musk, is the carte de diner offered to 
the epicure. 
That evening we saw an elephant with an enormous 
pair of tusks; he was standing on a hill about a 
quarter of a mile from the boats as we halted. I was 
aided to resist this temptation by an attack of fever : 
it rained as usual, and no village being in the neigh¬ 
bourhood, we bivouacked in the rain on the beach in 
clouds of mosquitoes. 
The discomforts of this lake voyage were great; in 
the day we were cramped in our small cabin like two 
tortoises in one shell, and at night it almost invariably 
rained. We were accustomed to the wet, but no accli¬ 
matisation can render the European body mosquito- 
proof ; thus we had little rest. It was hard work for 
me, but for my unfortunate wife, who had hardly 
recovered from her attack of coup de soleil , such hard¬ 
ships were most distressing. 
On the following morning the lake was calm, and 
we started early. The monotony of the voyage was 
broken by the presence of several fine herds of elephants, 
consisting entirely of bulls. I counted fourteen of 
these grand animals, all with large tusks, bathing to¬ 
gether in a small shallow lake beneath the mountains, 
having a communication with the main lake through 
a sandy beach: these elephants were only knee deep, 
and having been bathing they were perfectly clean, 
and their colossal black forms and large white tusks 
formed a beautiful picture in the calm lake beneath 
the lofty cliffs. It was a scene in harmony with the 
solitude of the Nile Sources—the wilderness of rocks 
and forest, the Blue Mountains in the distance, and the 
great fountain of nature adorned with the mighty 
beasts of Africa; the elephants in undisturbed grandeur, 
and hippopotami disporting their huge forms in the 
great parent of the Egyptian river. 
I ordered the boatmen to run the canoe ashore, that 
