258 
African Game Trails 
glare of heat and light; and ahead of us 
the great, strange river went twisting away 
into the distance. 
At midnight we had stopped at the sta¬ 
tion of Koba, where we were warmly re¬ 
ceived by the district commissioner, and 
where we met half a dozen of the profession¬ 
al elephant hunters, who for the most part 
make their money, at hazard of their lives, 
by poaching ivory in the Congo. They 
are a hard-bit set, these elephant poachers; 
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 
Sail-boat at Wadelai Landing. 
there are few careers more adventurous, or 
fraught with more peril, or which make 
heavier demands upon the daring, the en¬ 
durance, and the physical hardihood of 
those who follow them. 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 out¬ 
posts 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 permanency 
of occupation. The natives whom we saw 
we were joined by an elephant hunter,. 
Quentin Grogan, who was to show us the 
haunts of the great square mouthed rhinoc¬ 
eros, 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 Govern¬ 
ment, for which I was sincerely grateful. 
After leaving Wadelai we again went 
down stream. The river flowed through 
immense beds of papyrus. Beyond these on. 
either side were rolling plains gradually ris¬ 
ing in the distance into hills or low moun¬ 
tains. The plains were covered with high 
grass, dry and withered; and the smoke 
here and there showed that the natives, ac¬ 
cording to their custom, were now burning 
it. There was no forest; but scattered over 
