36 
In the Heart of Africa 
bottles of champagne we had taken with us for sickness, or other 
cases of emergency, did duty in celebrating the occasion. 
On the 13th of July we again decided to make a day’s excur¬ 
sion towards the east, if possible as far as the Kagera. We set 
off at sunrise with twenty carriers, crossing the Kalangassa and 
passing the northern slope of Mount Ndama. The farther we 
proceeded eastward the more hilly and picturesque the country 
became with its herds of elands, jimdra (lyre-antelopes), and 
zebras. The steppe is chiefly covered with the umbrella palm, 
which grows in shady clumps. At one of these latter, on a slope 
near the summit, we saw a troop of equine antelopes browsing. 
We had decidedly underrated the distance to the Kagera. 
Then, too, we had deviated somewhat south-east in consequence 
of the various hill-tops which had stood in our path. As it was 
late in the afternoon, we were compelled to return to camp. We 
arrived there considerably after nightfall, having been away 
fourteen hours. 
On the next day we struck camp and journeyed farther south. 
A fresh division of loads gave us no small amount of trouble, 
our greatly increased zoological assortment necessitating a much 
larger number of carriers. We were in an awkward dilemma 
with regard to this when, to our great good fortune, one of our 
commissariat caravans from an inhabited district west of the 
Kakitumbe hove in sight. 
Whilst on the march we came across one of the commissariat 
trains from Lake Mohasi which had been commissioned for 
Weiss, and we then received our first German mail. It included 
our first authentic news of Weiss, as well as of Wiese, whose 
camp had been passed by this caravan, which had orders to 
proceed to the Kagera, south of Mount Oregero. In a few lines 
Weiss and Kirschstein were informed of our movements. 
Our new camp lay close beside a papyrus swamp, which 
extended far away to the south, and was a real El Dorado for 
buffaloes. Perfectly unknown to man, it was bound to afford us 
some zoological surprises. 
Like all explorers, we had naturally set our ambition upon 
